About the Group

Perceiving a 3D scene out there and shapes of objects in the scene is important for our everyday life. The perception is veridical, stable, and reliable so that we can navigate in the scene and can recognize the objects based on our perception of them. Mechanisms of visual perception, including 3D perception have been studied in cognitive science (e.g. Pizlo, Sawada, Li, & Steinman, 2014; Sawada, Li, & Pizlo, 2015). Experiments of 3D perception in cognitive science are almost always conducted in laboratories. It allows us to control conditions of the experiments and to test a specific factor without any contamination of artefacts. However, it is questionable how much results from these experiments can be generalized to explain our perception under natural conditions in our everyday life. The visual system has multiple mechanisms of 3D perception and can switch between them depending on given environments.

The ‘Mathematical and Computational Psychology’ Research and Study Group studies human 3D perception under natural viewing conditions empirically using Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technology. We will develop theories and models of 3D perception under the natural conditions based on results of these experiments and on review of past studies of 3D perception, of eye movement, and of neuroscience, on theories of 2D and 3D geometry, and on algorithms of computer vision.

Multiple projects are ongoing in the group: 1) a theory and review of stereo 3D perception, 2) a role of a priori constraint on 3D perception, and 3) 3D perception from pictorial depth cues.