Final #2: Six Monocular Depth Cues

These lights are an example of a size difference monocular cue. The farther away the lights are, the smaller they appear to be. This type of monocular cue is very similar to a linear monocular cue because the lines of the lights line up and fade away into a singe point of perspective.

The brick wall in these photos are an example of a occlusion monocular depth cue. The wall blocks the vision you have of the rest of the room. But, when you move your avatar over the wall shifts and shows the rest of the room. This is just like in the real world and this concept is used in virtual worlds to give them the illusion of three dimensions.

The tree is an example of an atmospheric monocular depth cue. When you are far away from the tree all branches and leafs blend together and it is harder to see the individual leafs. As you get closer to the tree it becomes much easier to see the individual leafs and the over all detail of the tree is greater.

The water flowing in the picture is an example of a monocular depth cue with texture. As the water around the channel the ripple's shadows are represented by the darker shaded areas on the texture making the water look three dimensional. However, if you were to go closer to the texture you could see that the water is actually just a two dimensional image.

These windows represent a linear monocular depth cue. All of the lines that make up the boarder of the top and bottom of the windows are perfectly parallel. But, when you view the windows from the angle, the lines all seem to fade away into one single point in the distance. This is called point perspective and is used by painters, drawers, and virtual world designers to represent a three dimensional space on a two dimensional canvas.

The floor in avaya is an good example of a monocular depth cue involving lighting and shading. The light entering the windows above shines down and and creates lighter spots on the ground where the light directly hits. The darker shaded spots are the areas of the ceiling that do not have windows and the light is not shinning through. 

These screenshots are several examples of the many times of monocular cues that can be found in virtual worlds. Monocular cues are effects used by designers to confuse the human brain into thinking what they're seeing is a three dimension space when what they are actually seeing is colors and angles cleverly placed on a two dimensional canvas. This is a final exercise from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Discovering Computer Graphics. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc.