A new visual effect named the "Mime Effect" was found in the perception of 3-D objects with binocular viewing (Zhang, Idesawa & Sakaguchi, 1998), in which a volumetrical transparent illusory object filled with some transparent medium was perceived besides of the inducing objects arranged in suitable relation and displayed stereoscopically. The volumetrical illusory objects were perceived as changing their structural shapes with dynamic inducing objects; and geometrical hysteresis in the transition between separation and fusion was observed. The hysteresis was measured through experiments. It was found that the transparent volumetrical illusory objects were more difficult to separate and easier to fuse than the opaque volumetrical illusory objects. This implied that the human visual system tends to perceive objects as smaller number and retain the previously perceived structure; then the transition from one structure to another was delayed until the geometrical condition changed sufficiently to break the previously perceived structure.
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