R&D Information
Discovery of a New Visual Mechanism—Using Motion to Perceive Shapetions that prevented observers from tracking patternmotion and found that shape perception improved
with pattern motion even under this restriction, thereby refuting that interpretation. Since it is commonly
believed that motion information and shape information are unrelated, the results of these experiments
clearly set the stage for debate on whether motion
information is used in pattern reconstruction. An
important feature of the neural mechanism thatprocesses motion is “direction selectivity” in which
response differs according to the direction of image
motion. In our research, we demonstrated experimentally that shape perception in multi-slit viewing possesses direction selectivity based on the direction
selectivity of blocking effects due to noise patterns(masking) (Fig. 1) and on direction selectivity associated with the quality of the perceived pattern.
In future research, we plan to investigate the effects
of motion on the perception of other visual attributes
such as color in addition to shape. By understanding
human cognitive functions, NTT aims to uncoverbasic principles behind new information-display andcompression technologies and to contribute to the realization of an enriching information-sharing society.

NTT has found that the human brain can perceive
the shape of a moving object using motion information. This discovery, which was made during experiments involving visual illusions, runs counter to thecurrent consensus in neuroscience that shape andmotion are processed separately in the brain. The
knowledge gained by this discovery is expected to be
useful in guidelines for developing image-display
technologies.
Separate processing of the shape and motion of anobject by independent and specialized neural mechanisms in the human brain has been an established theory in neuroscience. Our discovery overturns that theory and indicates that shape and motion processing
are tightly intertwined right from the initial stage ofvisual information processing. The discovery alsomeans that moving an image makes that image eveneasier to see—a fact that should be useful in preparing guidelines for the design of future image-display
technologies.
The experiments that gave birth to this discovery
analyzed the human visual mechanisms involved with“multi-slit viewing” [1] and clarified the importantrole of motion information in the perception of shape.
Multi-slit viewing is an image-display system that
presents patterns such as alphanumeric charactersthrough an array of narrow slits. Pattern shape cannot
be recognized unless the pattern is scrolled behind thestationary slits. The traditional interpretation of multislit viewing is that the observer’s eyes track the pattern’s motion causing the original pattern to be drawn
on the retina. To evaluate the validity of this interpretation, we performed all experiments under condi-0%

Reference[1]

S. Nishida, “Human Visual Mechanism,” NTT Technical Review,Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 13-17, 2003.

For further information, please contact
NTT Science and Core Technology Laboratory Group
Atsugi-shi, 243-0198 Japan
E-mail: st-josen@tamail.rdc.ntt.co.jp

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Three noise intensity conditions are shown. Letter recognition is more difficult when the noise moves in the same direction
as the letters than when it moves in the opposite direction. Demonstration movies are available as “Demo 2” at
http://www.brl.ntt.co.jp/people/nishida/demo/multislitview/index.html

Fig. 1. Direction-selective masking by noise.

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