optical illusion

WildCat · Post by **WildCat** » Wed Jan 23, 2013 3:55 pm

Anaxagoras wrote:
WildCat wrote:Actually now I don't think they're photoshopped, it is an illusion.
Even if there is some photoshop going on there, what I was seeing was totally surreal. If you follow the instructions and watch the center cross the faces become like Salvador Dali paintings or weird cartoon caricatures.

Our brains (or at least my brain) just doesn't have quite enough time to process each face before it changes to the next one, which creates a weird effect where the faces don't look real.

I was making screen caps of the images I thought were photoshopped, but the screen caps loooked normal.

It is a weird phenomena.

Rob Lister · Post by **Rob Lister** » Fri Apr 11, 2014 11:15 am

[video][/video]

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Sat Apr 12, 2014 12:55 am

Nyarlathotep wrote:It's called the Flashed Face Distortion Effect and from the sounds of it, it happens because the brain is trying to quickly figure the difference between one face and the next so ends up exagerating each face.

As suggested on Nyarl's link, the effect persists even if you hide one of the two faces (but still center your gaze on the cross). One of the comments was "overclocking the visual cortex"!

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 4:18 am

How many black dots do you count?

Rob Lister · Post by **Rob Lister** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 11:05 am

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 11:08 am

Yep. Kinda confusing though because when you look at one the others seem to disappear.

asthmatic camel · Post by **asthmatic camel** » Mon Sep 26, 2016 7:05 pm

Rob Lister · Post by **Rob Lister** » Mon Sep 26, 2016 8:32 pm

I did her

sparks · Post by **sparks** » Mon Sep 26, 2016 8:50 pm

Did she show pleasant enthusiasm as you boinked her?

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Fri Sep 30, 2016 3:10 am

Bruce · Post by **Bruce** » Fri Feb 09, 2018 4:34 am

Best new one I've seen in a long time.

Can be spinning left or right.

Once your brain locks onto one direction, it's really hard to switch to the other. Try closing your left eye and right eye back and forth. You'll eventually see both.

robinson · Post by **robinson** » Sun Feb 11, 2018 5:58 pm

Wow, just wow

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Fri Mar 23, 2018 12:02 pm

gnome · Post by **gnome** » Fri Mar 23, 2018 12:24 pm

I wonder if a person would look odd walking past that area, because our brain is using the floor for visual cues on relative size and distance.

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Thu Mar 29, 2018 12:12 pm

OK, technically not an illusion but interesting

gnome wrote:I wonder if a person would look odd walking past that area, because our brain is using the floor for visual cues on relative size and distance.

It might, but I'm not sure if that's what it was designed for.

This one however is:

ed · Post by ed » Thu Mar 29, 2018 12:18 pm

Anaxagoras wrote:OK, technically not an illusion but interesting

That was a fad sorta thing back in the 17th 18th century. The artist would paint the image using a mirror.

sparks · Post by **sparks** » Thu Mar 29, 2018 5:25 pm

Are you trying to tell us that dried corn husks turn into frogs?

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Tue Aug 28, 2018 12:18 am

Hide the middle part:

ceptimus · Post by **ceptimus** » Mon Oct 15, 2018 2:20 pm

There are only three different colours in this image.

ceptimus · Post by **ceptimus** » Mon Oct 15, 2018 2:43 pm

Most people see the left arm of the Y looking more green and the right arm looking more blue.

How about this one? This also only has three colours, not counting the single black pixel right at the centre.

The 'Y' version again, seeing as how we're on a new page

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Tue Oct 23, 2018 1:51 am

ceptimus wrote: ↑Mon Oct 15, 2018 2:43 pm...

Are you still green, or turning blue? Happy birthday (if I'm not mistaken)!

gnome · Post by **gnome** » Tue Oct 23, 2018 12:55 pm

It's no surprise... Band colors together and it will seem like a sort of blend. In this case two different blends.

RGB screens had only three colors too.

ceptimus · Post by **ceptimus** » Wed Oct 24, 2018 4:29 pm

gnome wrote: ↑Tue Oct 23, 2018 12:55 pm RGB screens had only three colors too.

Not sure what you mean by RBG screens. If you're referring to the usual sorts of displays used on TVs and computer monitors, then yes, there are usually only three types of phosphor - but usually the intensity of each red, green, or blue phosphor dot can be specified with 5, 6, 8, or more bits of resolution - so these displays can show tens of thousands, up to millions of different colors.

This is different to the optical illusions that really do use only three colors over large areas (many pixels) - and with no variation of intensity of those colors. You could reproduce the same images on paper using three different paints, and they would be just as effective.

The reason these particular illusions work is that the color resolution of our eyes is much worse than the intensity resolution. Our brains form a mental image that attempts to reconstruct high resolution color using just brightness data, with some rough inaccurate color data present: it shouldn't really surprise us that sometimes they're fooled.

robinson · Post by **robinson** » Wed Oct 24, 2018 6:29 pm

ceptimus wrote: ↑Wed Oct 24, 2018 4:29 pm
gnome wrote: ↑Tue Oct 23, 2018 12:55 pm RGB screens had only three colors too.
Not sure what you mean by RBG screens. If you're referring to the usual sorts of displays used on TVs and computer monitors, then yes, there are usually only three types of phosphor - but usually the intensity of each red, green, or blue phosphor dot can be specified with 5, 6, 8, or more bits of resolution - so these displays can show tens of thousands, up to millions of different colors.

This is different to the optical illusions that really do use only three colors over large areas (many pixels)

Actually it's not that different. When you see a "white" screen on your computer, it actually looks like this.

or this

In fact everything on the screen we see is actually just three colors. Yes, the intensity of the colors changes to allow the illusion of many many colors, but you are always seeing three colors for each pixel, which is a grand illusion.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Wed Oct 24, 2018 11:54 pm

What I see is not color mixing, Impressionist (or computer screen) style, but color contrast. Analogous to the same grey appearing lighter or darker when next to black or white.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Sun Oct 28, 2018 1:33 am

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Fri Mar 08, 2019 9:10 am

Duck or Wabbit?

robinson · Post by **robinson** » Fri Mar 08, 2019 10:44 am

ceptimus · Post by **ceptimus** » Fri Mar 08, 2019 5:09 pm

gnome · Post by **gnome** » Fri Mar 08, 2019 9:44 pm

*clicks here to turn in a sicko*

sparks · Post by **sparks** » Fri Mar 08, 2019 11:06 pm

Stare at the cross mark and see monsters, and all the plates are right side up. Robinson and Ceptimacal is just having some fun.

ceptimus · Post by **ceptimus** » Fri Mar 08, 2019 11:46 pm

Concentrate on the top right one and imagine the light source is to your left. You might be able to flip the plates upsidedown: I found I could, after a while.

robinson · Post by **robinson** » Sat Mar 09, 2019 9:35 am

robinson · Post by **robinson** » Sat Mar 09, 2019 8:31 pm

Abdul Alhazred wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2019 5:56 pm 1) OK robinson, what am I supposed to see?

Bruce wrote: ↑Tue Jan 22, 2013 2:50 am
The more you watch, the more freaky and distorted the faces appear.

Except for Tom Cruise.

Doctor X · Post by **Doctor X** » Sat Mar 09, 2019 9:02 pm

--J.D.

Pyrrho · Post by **Pyrrho** » Fri Apr 05, 2019 12:27 am

Yesterday I was driving and a jet had just taken off from Hopkins airport. I was driving east at 35 mph and the jet was flying west. The horizontal speed of the jet seemed to be zero relative to my own, so I was able to perceive the vertical motion of the jet. Looked like it was just levitating upward. Really neat effect.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Fri Apr 05, 2019 12:42 am

Fix the central point, then move farther/nearer.

Pyrrho · Post by **Pyrrho** » Fri Apr 05, 2019 12:55 am

That is a 2D Rick Roll

Pyrrho · Post by **Pyrrho** » Sat Apr 06, 2019 8:45 pm

Link: https://twitter.com/pickover/status/1111999781931499520

shuize · Post by **shuize** » Sat Apr 06, 2019 10:50 pm

Bruce wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2018 4:34 am Best new one I've seen in a long time.

Can be spinning left or right.

Once your brain locks onto one direction, it's really hard to switch to the other. Try closing your left eye and right eye back and forth. You'll eventually see both.

The one turning counter clockwise has a better rack.