In previous studies the authors have shown that the enhanced detectability exhibited by stereoscopically viewed targets can be accounted for by assuming that the binocular system can linearly summate the left-eye and right-eye views of a visual scene. A model based upon this assumption leads to a variety of predictions concerning the detectability of noise-embedded targets. One such prediction is that the detectability of a target in these conditions is highly orientation specific. A test is reported of such a prediction that can be regarded as counterintuitive: namely, that the detectability, under stereoscopic viewing conditions, of a patch of sinusoidal grating masked by Gaussian noise should change substantially when the grating, oriented at 45°, is rotated until its orientation becomes −45°. The implications of these results for an understanding of the phenomenon of camouflage breaking are discussed.
Model-Based Wald Test for Adaptive Range-Spread Target Detection
