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Looming is a term found in the study of perception. It refers to the rapid expansion in the size of any given image. As the image becomes increasingly large on the perceiver's retina, i.e., when an object looms, there is an automatic physiological response to perceive the object as an approaching object or surface, instead of one that is stationary or receding [1]. In the field of neurobiology and animal behaviour, a looming stimulus is often used to simulate approach of a predator. Responding to looming stimuli is so integral to an animal's survival in the wild that they do not habituate to repeated displays. It is therefore used by biologists to understand perception, predator response, social interactions and information flow.

This code is an implementation of a looming stimulus that can be timed and displayed using an iOS devices. A video example is also presented where we see damselfish (Dascyllus marginatus) in the red sea retreating into the coral head due to perceived threat of the loom.

The above code is written using C++11 and tested on MacOS Sierra 10.12.5. Running the code requires MacOS and XCode to build. The grapics is done using Cinder 0.8.6. (https://libcinder.org/) a C++ library for creative coding.

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1. James J. Gibson, The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception: Classic Edition. Psychology Press. (2014).