54.4: Stereoscopic Depth Perception and Interocular Luminance Differences

We investigated the effects of interocular luminance differences on stereoscopic depth perception. The stimuli were stereoscopic square-shaped targets created from disparity embedded in a dynamic random-dot stereogram, which eliminated other cues to depth perception. The results revealed that stereoscopic depth perception survived significant interocular differences in luminance levels, even up to differences of 60%, provided that display luminance was approximately 0.63 cd/m2 or higher. In terms of design criteria, developers of stereo displays can use a fairly large range of interocular luminance levels and still induce good stereo depth perception.