Every single day all individuals experience a perception altercation in which they sense the speed of various objects, innately; based on the distance they are from them. This concept is known as the motion parallax, under which individuals have a natural sensation that images that appear closer to them are moving faster. This perception we experience on a daily basis occurs from the way in which we are moving in comparison to the way that objects appear to move past us in our visual field. Essentially there is the sensation of these stationary object in our visionary field moving, even though this is a false perception as it is a result of either our entire body moving; or simply through moving our heads. This is proved further because the term parallax is simply defined as being an apparent shift in motion. This nicely summarizes and expands upon what exactly the motion parallax is, which is our perception that there is seemingly motion taking place of an object, even though this is just a sensation we have due to our own movements. This is such a phenomenal concept as we can simply do this just by moving our heads around in our environment, and noticing that the closer objects appear to move quicker through our visual field than do the stimuli that are farther away. I was intrigued by this depth cue as we learned about it in lecture and it seemed remarkably relevant to our daily lives and one of the depth cues that were easier to understand and notice it, as it occurs more frequently and is more probable to realize. I also found this motion parallax very noteworthy as it involves the utilization of a few of our other depth cues in order to properly put it into a working format for our visual perception. In order to use motion parallax we must also be capable of using relative size, relative height, and familiar size of stimuli in our environment to efficiently and accurately perceive the world around us, as we move through it. Still my favorite way I used to recognize the motion parallax, as a child was when I would ride my bike around my neighborhood. When I was riding my bike past my neighbor’s mailbox, and I glanced at the mailbox, I felt as if I was zooming by at an incredible rate of speed. However then I would go down the hill at a similar speed and look at my own house and basketball hoop in the driveway, which were a much farther distance away from me, and they seemed to slowly pass by. This was always so interesting to me, I still felt like I was going fast, my hair was still blowing in the wind, yet everything in the distance seemed to go by in a slowed down fashion. Now that I understand what and how the motion parallax is and works I am able to realize I was using a variety of depth cues to perceive the world as I moved past it on my bicycle.
Motion Parallax: The Daily Phenomenon
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