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OT - a fantastic optical illusion

18 years ago

{{gwi:2116917}}

The squares marked "A" and "B" are the same shade of grey.

Here is a link that might be useful: Edward Adelson's chessboard illusion

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Comments (8)

anyanka
18 years ago
I could not believe that - had to test it in Photoshop, and still my eyes told me that the measuring tool was wrong! I filled in the squares in between with the same colour, and then it looked like a graduated thing.

Thanks.
martin_z
Original Author
18 years ago
It is amazing, isn't it? I convinced myself by taking the picture into Paint or Photo Editor, and cutting out bits of the squares, and dragging them next to each other. It's fascinating - as you drag the "lighter" one, it apparently gets darker as it moves out of the shadow.
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mwoods
18 years ago
That is amazing. I still had to see for myself so cut and pasted in Paint Shop Pro. They really are the same. I could do this stuff all day....when I'm not reading of course.
Kath
18 years ago
Well, I have no idea how to use Paint Shop Pro, but before I read any of your replies, my 18 year old son, who is sitting next to me playing on the other computer, rolled over on his chair and showed me *g*

Totally astonishing, and proof of how ingenious the brain is - like my multifocal contact lenses, which apparently have bands of near and far focus, and the brain just selects the bits it wants!
biwako_of_abi
18 years ago
It's utterly amazing, and even after I proved to myself that they are the same by blocking out the other squares with my fingers, it is still hard to believe when looking at the whole picture.
rosefolly
18 years ago
My brain believes it, but my eyes do not.

Rosefolly
froniga
18 years ago
I'm having a hard time with this. But some of you say you have proved it for yourself in various photo shop processes so I guess I must believe. I find it disturbing because it throws a pretty serious shadow of doubt on "eyewitness" accounts. They say seeing is believing. Obviously this isn't always the case.
anyanka
18 years ago
Eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable, Froniga! Our minds are programmed to interpret what we see so that it fits in with what we already know to be true. On an everyday level, that is a necessary feature which prevents visual (and other) overload. When it comes to accurate perception of unusual phenomena or events, though, this feature becomes a problem. At the extreme end this occurs in encounters with UFOs, ghosts or angels. At the mundane end, it causes the police to take witness descriptions of an accident with a large pinch of salt!

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