Abstract

The stabilized contrast-sensitivity function measured at a constant retinal velocity is tuned to a particular spatial frequency, which is inversely related to the velocity chosen. The Fourier transforms of these constant-velocity passbands have the same form as retinal receptive fields of various sizes. At low velocities, in the range of the natural drift motions of the eye, the stabilized contrast-sensitivity function matches the normal, unstabilized result. At higher velocities (corresponding to motions of objects in the environment), this curve maintains the same shape but shifts toward lower spatial frequencies. The constant-velocity passband is displaced across the spatio-temporal frequency domain in a manner that is almost symmetric about the constant-velocity plane at ν = 2 deg/s. Interpolating these diagonal profiles by a suitable analytic expression, we construct the spatio-temporal threshold surface for stabilized vision, and display its properties in terms of the usual frequency parameters; e.g., at low spatial frequencies, the temporal response becomes nearly independent of spatial frequency, while at low temporal frequencies, the spatial response becomes independent of temporal frequency.

© 1979 Optical Society of America

Motion and vision. III. Stabilized pattern adaptation

D. H. Kelly and Christina A. Burbeck
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 70(11) 1283-1289 (1980)

Motion and vision. I. Stabilized images of stationary gratings

D. H. Kelly
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 69(9) 1266-1274 (1979)

Motion and vision. IV. Isotropic and anisotropic spatial responses

D. H. Kelly
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 72(4) 432-439 (1982)

Spatiotemporal variation of chromatic and achromatic contrast thresholds

D. H. Kelly
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 73(6) 742-750 (1983)

Spatio-temporal frequency characteristics of color-vision mechanisms*

D. H. Kelly
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 64(7) 983-990 (1974)