Robert Allison

Professor, EECS Department
Member, Centre for Vision Research
Member, IC@L
Graduate programs in EECS, Psychology and Digital Media

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2021 – 2022 Research Highlights

Perception in Real and Virtual Environments

My interdisciplinary research program focuses on the interface between engineering and human psychology. I am interested in how people use vision to interact with the 3D world around us, both natural and synthetic, and irrespective of whether we act directly or through machines. Specifically, my basic research program investigates the visual perception of depth and self motion and the role of vision in the guidance and control of movement through the world.  My areas of expertise include stereoscopic displays, the psychophysical and computational investigation of depth perception, analysis of eye movements, and perceptual issues in virtual-reality and other display systems.

My research enables the development of effective technology for advanced virtual reality and augmented reality and for the design of stereoscopic displays. My team has had success in applying our research, particularly in the domains of 3D film, 3D games, optometry, forestry, aviation, security, and rehabilitation. I am currently working with leaders in industrial and government research bodies on improving the state-of-the-art in advanced displays and simulations. I am active in a collaboration with Jinjun Shan (ESSE York) and a network of collaborators from 5 institutions across the country under the DND Ideas program.

Research Highlights

1. Tong, J., Allison, R. S., & Wilcox, L. M. (2020). Optical distortions in VR bias the perceived slant of moving surfaces. In IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), (pp. 73–79).
2. Flagler, T., Tong, J., Allison, R. S., & Wilcox, L. M. (2020). Validity Testing the NeuLog Galvanic Skin Response Device. In 2020 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC) (pp. 3964–3968).
3. Keyvanara, M., & Allison, R. S. (2020). Effect of a Constant Camera Rotation on the Visibility of Transsaccadic Camera Shifts. In ACM Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications (Article No. 14, 1–8).
4. Zhao, J., & Allison, R. S. (2020). The Role of Binocular Vision in Avoiding Virtual Obstacles While Walking. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics. doi:10.1109/TVCG.2020.2969181
5. Cutone, M., Wilcox, L. M., & Allison, R. S. (2020). The impact of motion gain on egocentric distance judgments from motion parallax. In Journal of Vision (Vision Sciences Society Abstracts) (Vol. 20, 11, p. 1426).