Virtual environments in visual perception : applications and challenges

A 3D virtual environment (a VR cave) is an extremely beneficial tool for the examination of visual perception. So far, very little work on Virtual Reality has been specifically dedicated to human perception. Nevertheless, this technology has a number of advantages over traditional computer- or paper-based experiments. Virtual reality provides precise control over the visual scene, to a degree that is extremely difficult to achieve by manipulating physical objects in a room. More specifically, it allows full control of the luminance and of the spatial arrangement of the surfaces in the environment. In addition, within the immersive system, depth perception can be elicited through a combination of binocular stereopsis, head motion parallax and maintaining constant luminance intensity. This chapter outlines how recent studies in visual perception have employed an immersive 3D environment and discusses directions for future research.