Monocular gap stereopsis: manipulation of the outer edge disparity and the shape of the gap

A binocular stimulus that arises when two black frontal plane surfaces located at different depths have a gap between them for one eye but not for the other eye is interesting since the gap is monocular--it has no matching contours in the other eye--and yet binocular processes resolve a depth step effortlessly (Vision Research, 39, 493). In two experiments we investigate the processes and constraints underlying this depth resolution by varying the width of the solid image (the one without the gap) and the shape of the gap. The results show that the processes underlying monocular gap stereopsis can handle a situation in which the images of two surfaces in depth are effectively overlapping for one eye's view with the other eye seeing between them and that binocular depth is seen even when there is no disparity present. We also show that under ecologically appropriate conditions, depth curvature and warping can result when the monocular gap has a curved or warped edge. Both these experiments imply that the visual system responds to the ambiguity of the stimulus by adopting a minimum slant constraint.