Paper
19 May 2016 Investigating binocular summation in human vision using complementary fused external noise
Christopher L. Howell, Jeffrey T. Olson
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
The impact noise has on the processing of visual information at various stages within the human visual system (HVS) is still an open research area. To gain additional insight, twelve experiments were administered to human observers using sine wave targets to determine their contrast thresholds. A single frame of additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and its complement were used to investigate the effect of noise on the summation of visual information within the HVS. A standard contrast threshold experiment served as the baseline for comparisons. In the standard experiment, a range of sine wave targets are shown to the observers and their ability to detect the targets at varying contrast levels were recorded. The remaining experiments added some form of noise (noise image or its complement) and/or an additional sine wave target separated between one to three octaves to the test target. All of these experiments were tested using either a single monitor for viewing the targets or with a dual monitor presentation method for comparison. In the dual monitor experiments, a ninety degree mirror was used to direct each target to a different eye, allowing for the information to be fused binocularly. The experiments in this study present different approaches for delivering external noise to the HVS, and should allow for an improved understanding regarding how noise enters the HVS and what impact noise has on the processing of visual information.
© (2016) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Christopher L. Howell and Jeffrey T. Olson "Investigating binocular summation in human vision using complementary fused external noise", Proc. SPIE 9820, Infrared Imaging Systems: Design, Analysis, Modeling, and Testing XXVII, 982002 (19 May 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2224055
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KEYWORDS
Information visualization

Visualization

Contrast transfer function

Target detection

Eye

Spatial frequencies

Performance modeling

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