The Contribution of Stereoscopic and Motion Depth Cues to the Perception of Structures in 3D Point Clouds

Particle-based simulations are used across many science domains, and it is well known that stereoscopic viewing and kinetic depth enhance our ability to perceive the 3D structure of such data. But the relative advantages of stereo and kinetic depth have not been studied for point cloud data, although they have been studied for 3D networks. This article reports two experiments assessing human ability to perceive 3D structures in point clouds as a function of different viewing parameters. In the first study, the number of discrete views was varied to determine the extent to which smooth motion is needed. Also, half the trials had stereoscopic viewing and half had no stereo. The results showed kinetic depth to be more beneficial than stereo viewing in terms of accuracy and so long as the motion was smooth. The second experiment varied the amplitude of oscillatory motion from 0 to 16 degrees. The results showed an increase in detection rate with amplitude, with the best amplitudes being 4 degrees and greater. Overall, motion was shown to yield greater accuracy, but at the expense of longer response times in comparison with stereoscopic viewing.