Effects of visual noise on depth perception in landscape images

The phenomenon that the response of a nonlinear system to a weak input signal is optimized by the presence of a nonzero level of noise that occurs in the visual part of our brain. In this study, our purpose is to reveal whether depth perception of photographs increases with visual noise. We conducted an experiment to evaluate the depth perception of photographs with or without visual noise. We prepared two types of visual noises with three levels of amplitude. Results show that stimuli with visual noise were more frequently selected than those without noise, while the most effective noise depended on the photograph. It was suggested that depth perception was improved by appropriate noise of appropriate strength. The most effective noise might depend on the dominant depth clues in the photographs.