Embrace the Illusion!

Embrace the illusion! It's not here to fool you, but to tell you how your perceptions work.

Color illusion spiral used in video:
http://i41.tinypic.com/ae8ugx.jpg

Spiral via:
http://tinyurl.com/lvj5us

Colored squares illusion via:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070717.html

Colorful beetle pic was one of these:
http://tinyurl.com/kw4psk

Category:

Education

Tags:

• cousinomacul
• optical
• illusion
• color
• retina
• brain
• perception

[CogitoErgoCogitoSum]

So explain why our brains invert the color? You went from inverted color to gray scale, and we saw full normal color. Why is that? Why didnt our brains recall the inverted color instead?

[CousinoMacul]

Your retina/brain doesn't see colors directly, but constructs them by comparing the relative signal strengths between the 3 cone types. When you stare at an image, the brain get "charged up" (sort of) to the colors it's seeing. When you look away or swap out the image, the cones that were getting the strongest signals will have the biggest drop in signaling so that when the brain does its cone comparison, it will interpret a big drop as a weak signal and a small drop as a strong signal.

[CousinoMacul]

It's actually a bit more involved than that, but that's the general idea.

[gwhoosh]

the beetle was cool, but I don't think it demonstrates what you were talking about. Isn't it negative afterimage or something?

Also I kept waiting for a twist at the end lol

[CousinoMacul]

If you listened carefully, I never claimed it demonstrated what I was talking about, only that it was related. ;-)

[gothatfunk]

what an awesome video!

[ozmoroid]

Excellent video! 5'd and fav'd

[woyay]

you cannot reject mind body dualism when the structure of the mind determines your IQ level..

[CogitoErgoCogitoSum]

That makes sense. I will allow your answer.

[pocoapoco2]

I've come up with a good evolutionary explanation for your last "illusion". This build up over time of complimentary color information in a static image helps us to see details in a broader light level range by darkening brighter details. Or in other words we could see details in shadows in an otherwise bright environment by staring at it long enough.

[Minty123mintz]

that was AWsome!!!! try vid in full screen with the bettle one... nice

[littlewing126]

I've embraced the illusion and it appears that Kevin Spacey is talking to me in your vid ;-)

Great stuff, thanks!