As part of the second unit in the class we discussed vision and many different aspects involved with our vision. One subject we discussed that I seemed to find very interesting was the discussion about Monocular Cues. Monocular Cues are used to help perceive depth by only using one eye. There are many types of cues for example; relative size, interposition, aerial perspective, linear perspective, texture gradient, and motion parallax. Artists use these cues to help portray depth in their work and create a more realistic creation. Each of these cues helps portray depth in different ways and they are all used and perceived in many different ways all of the time.

Relative sized is used when two or more objects are being compared. The one that is smaller, therefore casting a smaller image on the retina is seen and perceived as farther away then the object that is bigger. Interposition, which is also referred to, as occlusion is when one object is in front of or blocking the other object, meaning that the object being blocked is behind that is blocking it. Another cue we discussed was linear perspective, which is when parallel lines are used to converge in the distance. This can be seen a lot when creating roads or long distances in paintings.  People often get this mixed up with convergence but they are not the same thing and should not be mixed up. One other cue is motion parallax, which for me seems to be the most common and easy to understand.

Motion parallax is when an object closer to you tends to move at a speed much faster than an object that is farther away. When I was coming back home for spring break and was looking out the window I seemed to notice this a lot. When I was looking directly out the window right next to the bus the area on the ground made it seem like we were moving at such an great speed. However, when I looked beyond what was just in front of me and into the distance I did not feel as if we were still moving with that same speed. Everything that was much farther away was moving with a slower speed compared to the ground right next to the bus. Motion parallax is used to determine absolute depth perception and helps display the discrepancy in motion of near objects and of objects that are much farther away.