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

[FP]

Originally posted by: v1001
Sorry man but I've looked over this over and over. They are very clearly different colors and shades. There is no mistaking this.

I've even physically blocked off the the surrounding squares with my hands. They are different. When I run my mouse over it it clearly is a different picture and color that they put in there for the one block to then make it look the same.

Wow, your monitor must really suck.

They are the same.

 

[Agentbolt]

My brain just can't accept it. I don't doubt for a second it's legit, you guys are clearly much smarter than me, but it just doesn't compute. It's like my brain's a pocket calculator and it just tried to divide by zero.

 

[gururu2]

they are different colors as presented to the eye. if you zoom in (cntrl+scroll) as far as possible up to where areas of both are still visible, you can see that when you run our mouse over the color of the bottom one changes and the top one does not (in particular, a smattering of pixels in the corner of the B square turn much darker as you run your mouse over).

I believe this optical illusion is dependent on the color blending that occurs between adjacent pixels, rendering the edges of B lighter than they would be without the environment. anyways try it out you will see.

 

[spacejamz]

Originally posted by: v1001
Sorry man but I've looked over this over and over. They are very clearly different colors and shades. There is no mistaking this.

I've even physically blocked off the the surrounding squares with my hands. They are different. When I run my mouse over it it clearly is a different picture and color that they put in there for the one block to then make it look the same.

Copy the the image into MS Paint or whatever and then copy the two squares and put them side by side.

 

[T9D]

Edit: Combined all my thoughts in my first comment.

 

[ShadowOfMyself]

Originally posted by: Agentbolt
My brain just can't accept it. I don't doubt for a second it's legit, you guys are clearly much smarter than me, but it just doesn't compute. It's like my brain's a pocket calculator and it just tried to divide by zero.

Yup this thread is a major BRAIN FAIL

I hate it how even after seeing it in photoshop I still cant tell they are the same

Usually illusions work in a way that after you found the trick you can control it, but not this one, well at least not on a CRT screen

 

[Jeff7]

v1001 - the colors are the same. Your monitor isn't an issue, though I suppose that if you have an LCD, then the viewing angle will change the color slightly. A browser will not render colors differently within the same image.

Go to the Wikipedia link in my post above. Copy the PNG image into Paintbrush - if you use the PNG file, you won't get any JPEG artifacts.
Select a section of the "B" block, and paste it into the A block. No difference.

Also, if you compress to PNG, you won't get any artifacts or quality loss, but just a much much smaller file.

 

[ryan256]

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.

Same... I pulled it into Gimp and I'll be damned but they are the same.
6A6A6A

 

[T9D]

Edit: Combined all my thoughts in my first comment.

 

[Terabyte]

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/...05/lightness_illusion/

 

[OdiN]

cross your eyes on purpose - like you are looking at one of those posters with the hidden picture....

Once the image is blurred you will see that they are in fact the same color.

 

[Kirby]

Originally posted by: QED
One of my favorite optical illusions is "Purple Nurple", at the top of this page here:
http://opticalillusions4kids.b...-optical-illusion.html

Gah, my head wants to explode.

 

[Venix]

Originally posted by: v1001

Originally posted by: binister

Originally posted by: v1001
Sorry man but I've looked over this over and over. They are very clearly different colors and shades. There is no mistaking this.

I've even physically blocked off the the surrounding squares with my hands. They are different. When I run my mouse over it it clearly is a different picture and color that they put in there for the one block to then make it look the same.

Wow, your monitor must really suck.

They are the same.

Nope. A very good one and well calibrated monitor in fact. And sorry buddy but a sucky monitor would to the oppoosite. It would have LESS colors available and you would be the one with the sucky monitor. It wouldn't be able to render the difference. The better the monitor the CLEARER the difference would be.

I blocked off the rest of them even with white paper. Then took a picture of them. This is what my camera saw.
Text

Even more pronounced in person. There is a definite difference. I'm thinking that perhaps there is some inconsistency or something between images seen in a browser and when copied and transferred to photoshop. much like how each browser renders code different even.

Also each light will effect it differently though. By standing farther back you are going to have the light from each block change because the surrounding light blending together and changing how it's perceived. What ever it is it's different for sure.

There is really little point in speculating. Any image editor can tell you exactly what color the squares are. Both are 0xA6A6A6.

 

[T9D]

Edit: Combined all my thoughts in my first comment.

 

[gsellis]

Here is the original file so it is easier. Text

See this all the time editing and get used to it. The hard part is getting the shadow color right.

 

[CottonRabbit]

This the website of the MIT professor who created this illusion and his explanation.

Here's an animated flash explaining a similar illusion if you're still not convinced.

You really can't argue with this illusion, your brain failed, simple as that. The illusion would still work even on a perfect copy displayed with a perfect display.

 

[Chiropteran]

If you cross your eyes just right you can see a sailboat.

 

[Phokus]

marked!

 

[middlehead]

Originally posted by: nkgreen

Originally posted by: QED
One of my favorite optical illusions is "Purple Nurple", at the top of this page here:
http://opticalillusions4kids.b...-optical-illusion.html

Gah, my head wants to explode.

True story.

 

[brikis98]

yup, good illusion. i had a print out of this on my dorm room door years ago, with one of the squares cut out, but kept in place with velcro, so you could move it around. always funny looking out the peep hole and seeing ppl marveling at this

 

[1prophet]

Disable scripts so the mouseover doesn't work.


Now refresh webpage and copy the image and repaste on the desktop.


Open in windows and fax viewer and expand the image making sure the A & B are still visible in the the screen.

Let us know if it looks the same since it doesn't for me.

 

[Arkaign]

Am I broken or something? They look identically colored to me. I don't see any illusion at all

 

[Special K]

Alright, I have a dumb question - If squares A & B are the same color, then it follows that the squares above, below, and to the left and right of B are also the same color as both A and B, correct? But if that is the case, then why am I able to distinguish between square B and the dark squares adjacent to it? If they really were the exact same color, then it seems like all I should be able to see is a big solid + centered on where the B is, and composed of 5 separate squares.

 

[Eeezee]

Welcome to 1999?

 

[kalrith]

This seems unbelievable, but it's not surprising to me. I used to have a pair of pants that looked gray everywhere except in my Ford Ranger. I soon as I stepped in there my pants looked green up against the interior.

This is one of my favorite optical illusions.