My research focuses on how humans estimate depth from binocular disparity, known as stereopsis. The world we live in is three-dimensional (3D). However, we can only understand such a 3D environment through the visual scene projected to our retinas, which are two-dimensional (2D). Our visual system has to integrate the two eye retinal images and use binocular disparity, the horizontal location difference between the two retinas, to reconstruct an internal 3D representation of the outside world.

During my Ph.D. in Psychology, I conducted a series of psychophysics to reveal how perceived depth from disparity is affected by the luminance contrast of test images. I also worked on a gain-control disparity energy model for human stereopsis, which incorporates contrast normalization of the neural response into the existing disparity energy model to account for such contrast dependence of perceived depth from disparity. With both psychophysics and neuroimaging techniques, I aim to gain a deeper understanding of how the brain processes binocular disparity and integrates information from various depth cues for perceiving depth.