Seeing Our 3D World While Only Viewing Contour-drawings

Farshchi, Maddex, Alexandra Kiba, and Tadamasa Sawada. 2020. “Seeing Our 3D World While Only Viewing Contour-drawings.” PsyArXiv. June 25. doi:10.31234/osf.io/28wmp

Abstract: Artists can represent a 3D object by using only contours in a 2D drawing. Prior studies have shown that people can use such drawings to perceive 3D shapes reliably, but it is not clear how useful this kind of contour information actually is in a real dynamical scene in which people interact with objects. To address this issue, we developed an Augmented Reality (AR) device that can show a participant a contour-drawing of a real dynamical scene in an immersive manner. We found that contour information, alone, is sufficient to perform a variety of run-of-the-mill tasks under natural viewing conditions. This contour information may be sufficient to provide the basis for our visual system to obtain all of the 3D information needed for successful visuomotor interactions in our everyday life.