Stereoscopic vision technology is applied in a wide range of fields, from 3D movies to medical care. Stereoscopic vision makes it possible to observe images in parallax between both eyes. However, parallax images cannot be used all the time due to a situation called “occlusion”, in which an object is hidden in the depths by another object. In this case, different images are projected on the right and left retina. Here, we propose a psychology experiment to elucidate the function of parvocellular cells in the LGN of the visual cortex of the brain using occlusion perception. As a new psychology experiment to clarify whether parvocellular cells in the LGN of the visual cortex, said to process chromatic and luminance information, can detect a disagreement between the retinal images produced by each eye, we measured convergence eye movement when gazing at the rim of a column under occlusion using an equiluminance random dot pattern. When eye movement prevented the disagreement of the retinal images caused by occlusion, we thought that convergence eye movement to move both eyes in front of the rim or divergence eye movement to move them behind the rim would occur. In other words, we thought that we could clarify whether there was parvocellular system process agreement or disagreement between the right and left retinal images under equiluminance. Therefore, we examined whether a system to detect disagreement between the retinal images exists in the brain when gazing at the rim of a column onto which an equiluminance random dot texture was mapped. Results suggested that the mechanism to avoid disagreement between the retinal images of the eyes caused by occlusion occurs in the parvocellular cells, which mainly process color information, as well as in the magnocellular cells, which process binocular disparity.

In this study, we first developed a simultaneous measurement system for accommodation and convergence eye movement and evaluated its precision. Then, using a stuffed animal as the target, whose depth should be relatively easy to perceive, we measured convergence eye movement and accommodation at the same time while a tablet displaying a 3D movie was moved in the depth direction. By adding the real 3D display depth movement to the movement of the 3D image, subjects showed convergence eye movement that corresponds appropriately to the dual change of parallax in the 3D movie and real display, even when a subject's convergence changed very little. Accommodation also changed appropriately according to the change in depth.

Over the last 10 years, tablets have spread to the point where we can now read electronic books (e-books) like paper books. There is a long history of studies of eye movement during reading. Remarkable results have been reported for reading experiments in which displayed letters are changed in conjunction with eye movement during reading. However, these studies were conducted in the 1970s, and it is difficult to judge the detailed descriptions of the experimental techniques and whether the display time was correctly controlled when changing letters. Here, we propose an experimental system to control the display information exactly, as well as the display time, and inspect the results of past reading research, with the aim of being at the forefront of reading research in the e-book era.