The influence of cyclovergence on unconstrained stereoscopic matching

In order to perceive depth from binocular disparities the visual system has to identify matching features of the two retinal images. Normally, the assigned disparity is unambiguously determined by monocularly visible matching constraints. The assigned disparity is ambiguous when matching is unconstrained, such as when we view an isolated long oblique disparate line. Recently we found that in order to perceive a depth probe at the same depth as the oblique line, the probe needs to have the same horizontal disparity as the line (i.e. matching occurs along horizontal "search-zones" [Vis. Res. 40 (2000) 151]). Here we examined whether the depth probe disparity in unconstrained matching of long lines is influenced by cyclovergence, by cyclorotation between stereogram half-images, or by combinations of the two. We measured retinal rotation (6 deg in cyclovergence conditions). We found that in those conditions in which the retinal images were the same (a condition with, say, both zero cyclovergence and zero cyclorotation between the half-images, creates the same retinal images as a condition with both 6 deg cyclovergence and 6 deg cyclorotation) assigned depth was the same too, i.e. independent of cyclovergence. Thus, the assigned depth of the test-line seems to be determined solely by the retinal test-line orientation, implying that the binocular matching algorithm does not seem to incorporate the eyes' cyclovergence when matching is unconstrained. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.