03 February 2024

Yet another optical illusion


For this illusion to be effective, you need to view a gif, and since I've never learned how to embed gifs, I'll just link it here.  After 22 seconds, the static image above changes for 2 seconds to this black-and-white one -

- which your brain will see in full color (reversed from the top embed). 

The effect is probably similar to the Troxler's fading that I blogged back in 2011.

I thought I had blogged this one before, but I couldn't find it in my archive of optical illusions (84 to date, but some are undergoing linkrot over the years, so don't delay forever in browsing them).

4 comments:

  1. Edvard Munch described it very precisely, too! cf. https://octodon.social/@temptoetiam/111658544077374613

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    1. Edvard Munch wrote in his diary about his stay in Paris:
      “Go into a billiard room - When you have looked for a moment at the intense green covering, look up - How strange - Everything around looks red. » (Violet Journal, 1891-1892, f°16r, cited p. 46)
      This is a striking description of the complementary afterimage left by a prolonged colored stimulus!

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  2. What I found interesting, is that you can only see the colours, if you look at the spot when it turns grey. Even moving away makes the image b&w, then colour again, when you return to the spot. If you focus on another area of the image, prior to b&w, the same thing happens. So I think it emphasises the memory of the retina. As when you move away from the dot, the photo imprint on your retina does not match/align with the b&w version.

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