Really neat illusion

Friday, September 27, 2002 by Chris | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk

http://www-bcs.mit.edu/people/adelson/checkershadow_illusion.html

The squares denoted by A and B are actually the same shade of grey. Really cool!

Here are some animated examples
http://www-bcs.mit.edu/gaz/main-frameset.html

And here's the indepth analysis (warning: eye-glazing technical stuff ahead...)
http://www-bcs.mit.edu/people/adelson/publications/gazzan.dir/gazzan.htm

DavidK
Reply #1 Friday, September 27, 2002 6:12 PM
That's amazing... the checkerboard is one of the best examples of that illusion I've ever seen.
MarkMcQ
Reply #2 Friday, September 27, 2002 6:52 PM
I was totally sceptical about it, so I broke out Zoomer and checked the colours, and they are identical.
That's a fantastic page.
Hell Dragon
Reply #3 Friday, September 27, 2002 8:08 PM
I'll never trust my eyes again
Jafo
Reply #4 Friday, September 27, 2002 9:23 PM
Yes, they are identical...and a very clear example of the illusion...
Koasati
Reply #5 Friday, September 27, 2002 10:13 PM
Thanx Chris. The animations are quite 'eye opening' .....
AlienTerror
Reply #6 Saturday, September 28, 2002 2:08 PM
did't understand a **** of the text
paxx
Reply #7 Saturday, September 28, 2002 3:12 PM
Wow, like Hippy, I couldn't believe they were the same. I opened the image in Photoshop and masked everything but the two square. Yep, the same.
Bangkokboy
Reply #8 Saturday, September 28, 2002 7:32 PM
I would have bet $100.00 that they were different, but my color picker doesn't lie. In a world where it's hard to find anything to trust, I now find that I can't even trust my eyeballs! Thank you Chris - er, I think.
Bangkokboy
Reply #9 Saturday, September 28, 2002 7:34 PM
Does this have anything to do with the well known morning after optical disillusion phenomenon??
werewolf
Reply #10 Sunday, September 29, 2002 11:41 AM
What an piece of work is man... I had to use colorpad to check it, even after reading that everyone else had checked it. I was sure you were all wrong The demo's were great.

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Aqua.
Reply #11 Sunday, September 29, 2002 12:30 PM
!!!
Bangkokboy
Reply #12 Monday, September 30, 2002 12:18 PM
This one won me some money, but I had to take along screenshots of the squares being checked with a color picker. People would not believe it without hard evidence. Then again, neither did I.
craeonics
Reply #13 Monday, September 30, 2002 2:47 PM
Context is everything. Though this was a bit extreme. The one in the shade seems lighter because of its darker surroundings and the other way around. Which is because we view things based on contrast, not on absolutes.
Bangkokboy
Reply #14 Monday, September 30, 2002 5:07 PM
The moral of this story is to surround yourself with yutzes if you're hell bent on looking good. And keep Superman 20 feet away at all times.
Lecrayon
Reply #15 Tuesday, October 1, 2002 8:46 AM
Crae, absolutely right! I love the illusion, but if you look closely you will notice the uphilly slope at the left back side. This is due to the wrong tonation of the grey and why a=b If you have the tonation right you will create depth and lose the illusion...

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