The most stunningly simple optical illusion I've ever seen.

[DangerAardvark]

Text

It's a fairly famous one.

Squares A and B are the same color. I literally CAN'T see them as the same color. This thing is so absurdly naked that it borders on a hallucination. The brain is a weird thing.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Damn, I didn't believe it till I opened it in Photoshop....

I think it's because the surrounding "black" boxes become a lot darker in that area.

 

[BALIstik916]

damn that's almost unbelievable

 

[George P Burdell]

unbelievable

 

[lyssword]

wow. I guess the brain looks at the whole picture instead of trying to compare small details I had to move mouse over couple times to believe it

 

[Canai]

 

[dethman]

crazy brain of mine.

 

[NanoStuff]

Originally posted by: lyssword
wow. I guess the brain looks at the whole picture instead of trying to compare small details

The brain perception of shade and color is relative, this allows it to see the 'true' appearance of the object disregarding shifts in illumination and hue.

The same is true for color. A blue but red-shifted object in a red-shifted surrounding will appear more blue than it really is. When you look at it in a neutral surrounding then you will see it's actually more red than you were led to believe. The brain in this case subtracts the common color so you can see them more naturally. This makes perfect sense for example during sunset, so that you can still clearly see green leaves as green even though the amount of green light they are giving off is minimal.

In this case you can still see white as white despite the shadow being cast over it.

The illusion makes it seem like our brains are easily deceived. In reality this makes our brains particularly hard to deceive because we can see right through such impedances to determine the real nature of the object. Had both squares looked the same, in the natural world this would actually be a flawed perception because once the shadow is removed it becomes clear they are not. Only on a static raster image you are led to believe there is something defective about this.

 

[dug777]

Unless my D80 is also lying, they're full of sh1t.

They're quite clearly different colours.

Except playing with paint & cut & paste says they are the same shade

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

There's no way...

But then when you look at it long enought it pops out.

Freaky

It's the contrast between the letters A and B that throw it all off...


In fact, if you take a few steps back from your monitor it becomes very obvious... Cool

 

[ShadowOfMyself]

Originally posted by: dug777
Unless my D80 is also lying, they're full of sh1t.

They're quite clearly different colours.

Except playing with paint & cut & paste says they are the same shade

After cutting the B square in photoshop and moving it around I still cant believe my eyes... That cylinder shadow is like a freaking gradient... As you move the B square it changes color... WTF

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

Originally posted by: ShadowOfMyself

Originally posted by: dug777
Unless my D80 is also lying, they're full of sh1t.

They're quite clearly different colours.

Except playing with paint & cut & paste says they are the same shade

After cutting the B square in photoshop and moving it around I still cant believe my eyes... That cylinder shadow is like a freaking gradient... As you move the B square it changes color... WTF

Don't stare at it... take a few steps back from your monitor and look again. You'll see it.

 

[Ika]

I saw that they were the same color after I realized what was going on and my brain had about 10-20 seconds.

 

[fleabag]

Originally posted by: mrSHEiK124
Damn, I didn't believe it till I opened it in Photoshop....

I think it's because the surrounding "black" boxes become a lot darker in that area.

Uh, which picture did you save, the first or second picture into photoshop?

Nvm, tried it myself by erasing the edges of each square and it in fact changed. I believe the reason why we don't see it this way is due to how we expect a picture to look. Since we already have prior knowledge about chess/checkers boards, this knowledge is applied to the picture and that's why we're seeing what we're seeing.

 

[thetxstang]

Sorry, I'm still in disbelief (i.e., shens). I've stood 30+ feet back from my LCD, where both the A and B letters are indiscernible, and I still see a marked difference in color. I've also stared at the squares for more than a minute head on, making myself try to see the same shade, and still I don't. I'm not a Photoshop user, but I'm still having trouble believing this.

 

[Modeps]

Originally posted by: thetxstang
Sorry, I'm still in disbelief (i.e., shens). I've stood 30+ feet back from my LCD, where both the A and B letters are indiscernible, and I still see a marked difference in color. I've also stared at the squares for more than a minute head on, making myself try to see the same shade, and still I don't. I'm not a Photoshop user, but I'm still having trouble believing this.

You cant call shens on something that's proven.

 

[kranky]

I agree, that is my favorite optical illusion ever.

thetxstang, it's not shens. That's what makes it a great illusion!

 

[nycxandy]

Originally posted by: thetxstang
Sorry, I'm still in disbelief (i.e., shens). I've stood 30+ feet back from my LCD, where both the A and B letters are indiscernible, and I still see a marked difference in color. I've also stared at the squares for more than a minute head on, making myself try to see the same shade, and still I don't. I'm not a Photoshop user, but I'm still having trouble believing this.

Here, I tried making a diagram that shows the color match.

Diagram

 

[clamum]

Wow that's cool. When I first saw it I said "bullshit" and loaded it up in Photoshop. Foot in mouth.

 

[Aharami]

this has baffled me for years too!

 

[tfinch2]

If you look at the image on an LCD outside of it's viewing angle, you can clearly see that they are the same color.

 

[lokiju]

My brain is broken now

 

[Sqube]

Stupid brain.... why can't you see the truth?!

 

[Mrvile]

It's pretty cool but I definitely believe it. The painting/color courses here teach us all about how the brain sees colors influenced by colors around it...make a purple, surround it with a cool color and it will look warmer than the same purple surrounded by a warm color. In order to make the colors actually look the same to the brain, the purple in the cool color needs to be a little warmer and vice versa, so that the two purples aren't the same at all but will appear the same.

 

[Cuda1447]

Yep, optical illusions are cool. Thats one of my favorite ones. I like to show it to people and let them call me a liar etc.. then prove them wrong.