Gestalt Qualities

Although the computational mechanism of the Gestalt Bubble model involves local field-like influences between local computational elements, the real power of this approach is that it allows the final perceptual state to be governed by global configural factors, as suggested by Gestalt theory. For example four edges that outline an enclosed form promote a perceptual experience of a coherent foreground object by the Gestalt principle of closure, and that object is perceived in front of a background surface that is perceived to be continuous behind the occluder. This percept is modeled in the Gestalt Bubble model exactly as it is perceived, with an enclosed foreground object perceived in front of a continuous background surface.

The Gestalt principle of closure applies also in three-dimensions, in the perceptual tendency to perceive objects not merely by their visible front faces as a hollow facade, but as whole objects in depth whose hidden rear surfaces are perceived amodally as enclosed objects in depth.