Editing Parallax (section)

== Visual perception ==
{{main|stereopsis|depth perception|binocular vision|binocular disparity}}
[[File:The sun, street light and Parallax edit.jpg|thumb|right|In this photograph, the [[Sun]] is visible above the top of the [[streetlight]]. In the reflection on the water, the Sun appears in line with the streetlight because the [[virtual image]] is formed from a different viewing position.]]
Because the eyes of humans and other animals are in different positions on the head, they present different views simultaneously. This is the basis of [[stereopsis]], the process by which the brain exploits the parallax due to the different views from the eye to gain depth perception and estimate distances to objects.<ref>{{Cite book | last1=Steinman | first1=Scott B. | last2=Garzia | first2=Ralph Philip | date=2000 | title=Foundations of Binocular Vision: A Clinical perspective |  publisher=McGraw-Hill Professional | isbn=978-0-8385-2670-5 | pages=2–5 }}</ref>

Some animals also use '''motion parallax''', in which the animal (or just its head) moves to gain different viewpoints. For example, [[pigeon]]s (whose eyes do not have overlapping fields of view and thus cannot use stereopsis) bob their heads up and down to see depth.<ref>{{harvnb|Steinman|Garzia|2000|loc=p. 180}}.</ref>
Motion parallax is also exploited in [[wiggle stereoscopy]], computer graphics that provide depth cues through viewpoint-shifting animation rather than through binocular vision.