Final #2

In this assignment we identified the six different types of Monocular Depth Cues.  These cues are used to portray a three dimension world on a flat surface such as a computer screen.  I entered meshmoon to find examples of each type.  It 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

The first and simplest monocular depth cue is size difference. It is similar to the effect you get when looking off of a skyscraper and everyone looks like the size of an ant. Even though the person is the same size the distance makes it appear smaller. In my example I noted two trees that have a substantial size difference making the smaller one appear further away.

The second depth cue I looked at was occlusion. The best example I could think of was looking at a house with the front door open.  The exterior of the house hides your view but the open door gives it depth becasue you can see inside. I found a virtual world that portrayed this idea.

Lighting and shading are also monocular depth cues.  You would expect that when light is shining on a three dimensional object that there will be a shadow cast from the shining light.  In the virtual world 'circus' I found that this game was blocking like lights reflection with the tent.

The forth cue is texture density.  This effect is similar to standing at the top of a big flight of stairs and looking down.  The stairs right beneath you look evenly spaced but as you look further down they appear closer and closer tougher.  I found this example in 'summer landscape', the wooden boards at the bottom of the picture are more spaced out but the ones at the top are so close they are hard to distinguish.

I found Linear Perspective to be close to texture density and size difference but with a specification on lines.  In this example I found a row of boxes, and when standing at one end the lines parallel with me seem to get closer together.

The last monocular cue is atmospheric density.  It is a complicated way of saying things that are closer to your appear clearer and things far away appear blurry due to lack of light. My example from 'summer landscape' show the building close to me has good detail and I can see each individual board but the structure in the back is too blurry.