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Optical illusion featuring creepy eye and color-changing tropical island is a total mind trip

Oh, how the eye plays tricks on us.

Reddit

Haven't had a classic creepy optical illusion in a while.

Optical illusions are always a fun way to learn about how our brains perceive the world—and how easily our eyes can be tricked.

One viral illusion going around, titled “This is black magic,” also happens to be giving perfect Summerween vibes—featuring a single solitary eye staring back at you and a very creepy narrated voice.

As you’ll see below, you, the viewer, are instructed to keep your gaze fixed on the eye in the center of the screen, in front of a tropical beach background with a “yellow sky and red sea.” Then…well…why don't you see for yourself first:

this is black magic
byu/SnooMemesjellies2323 inopticalillusions

As the voiceover explains, the color of the sky changes to have more “vibrant blues and greens.” Only, there were no blues and greens at all, when you go back and watch the video without staring at the eye, you see that the second image was actually black and white. DUN DUN DUN!!!!

As one viewer noted, "Watching it a second time and expecting the shift, it was even cooler. It swapped and I saw it in color, then saw the color fade to black and white.”

A few others couldn’t help but comment on the, ahem, interesting tone of the illusion overall.

"Why was the voice so creepy? I was anticipating a jump scare 😭," one person wrote.

So…is it really black magic? Obviously no. In fact, another viewer breaks down the science pretty darn well:

“Tldr: first image depletes chemical signals in your eye, so you see the exact opposite colors on the second image.

Your eye uses photoreceptors to create an image for the brain, by converting the light that lands on your retina (back of the eye) into chemical signals to represent color and bright/dark.

 optical illusion, reddit, color perception, color theory, color science, science, cool science A simple visual breakdown of eye anatomy.Photo credit: Canva

When you stare at an image without moving your eyes, that image becomes kind of ‘burned in’ temporarily to your retina, because the chemicals to send that specific image get depleted in the exact pattern of that image. In this example, the orange in the sky and water depletes whatever chemicals your photoreceptors use to send that orange to your brain wherever orange is in the image.

Then when you change to a black and white image, your photoreceptors only have the exact opposite chemicals left from what they need, so for a short time you'll see the exact opposite color of the primer image. In this example, the dark oranges turn to light tropical water blue and the light oranges turn to deep dark sky blue. Another easy way to see this is the clouds turn from black in the first image to white in the second.

An over simplified example would be like an ice cream machine that gives you either chocolate or vanilla. If everyone gets chocolate for a while, then after that you can only get vanilla until someone replenishes the chocolate."

Great explanation, but it was the ice cream metaphor that really resonated, amirite?

  - YouTube  www.youtube.com  

Bottom line: while there might not be any black magic used to create this video, it’s certainly a cool reminder of how magical our brains are.

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Internet

People are losing their minds over this circle-filled optical illusion

Yes, there really are circles there.

@DrGBuckingham/Twitter

The coffer iIllusion appears to be nothing but right angles, but there really are circles in there.

Optical illusions are always fun to play with, but some can be particularly challenging on the old eyes and brain. It's fascinating to see how different people process them and how quickly or slowly—or sometimes not at all—people see things that aren't really there or see images hidden within other images.

Not to brag, but I'm kind of an optical illusion savant. It usually doesn't take me longer than a few seconds to see whatever it is people say they are seeing. But occasionally an illusion comes along that stumps me to the point where I wonder if people are actually lying about what they are seeing.

This rectangle/circle illusion is one of those.

It's called the coffer illusion and was created by Stanford University psychologist and vision scientist Anthony Norcia.

It actually won Best Illusion of the Year in 2006.

The image is made up of a pattern of black, white and gray lines of various shades that create the illusion of rectangles. It's easy enough to see the rectangles.

What's not so easy to see are the 16 circles in the image. Yes, they really are there.

Take a look:

Seriously, at first my brain said, "Nope." How could there be circles? All I see are straight lines. Straight lines horizontally. Straight lines vertically. Not a single curved line anywhere in sight. How can there be circles if there are nothing but right angles in the image?

So I did what any self-respecting social-media-savvy person would do and started scrolling the comments to see if anyone explained how they saw circles.

(Warning: Spoilers ahead if you're still trying to see the circles on your own.)

One way to see the circles is to focus on the vertical bars between the rectangles. For some, that makes the circles suddenly pop off the screen.

For those who need more of a visual clue, someone broke it down with colored shapes, literally circling one of the circles.

Once you see them, it's pretty easy to switch back and forth, but hoo boy, does it take a while to actually see them the first time.

Why is that?

According to an explanation from Associate Professor Alex Holcombe and PhD student Kim Ransley from the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney, the reason we have a hard time seeing the circles at first is because of our brain's strong tendency to identify objects in what we're seeing. The lines come together to form edges, contours and shapes, and our brains fill in the objects.

"For most people, the grouping into rectangles initially dominates," the authors write. "This may be because rectangles (including the ones we see in door panels) are often more common than circles in our daily environment, and so the brain favours the grouping that delivers rectangular shapes."

I figure it's also likely due to the rectangles looking more 3D (therefore like a real object) while the circles appear as 2D.

Aren't our brains amazing?


This article originally appeared two years ago.

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Culture

Optical illusion makes looking at Van Gogh's 'Starry Night' a truly 'moving' experience

This is so trippy.

@Alex_Verbeek/Twitter, "Van Gogh's Starry Night" by Christopher S. Penn is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Watch "The Starry Night" come to life with this optical illusion.

Vincent Van Gogh's "The Starry Night" is one of the most recognizable and beloved paintings in the world. It was completed in 1889 and has been part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1941. It is not up for sale, but if it were to go to auction there is a chance it could fetch as much as billion dollars.

Such a priceless work of art is perhaps a strange object for a parlor trick, but trust me when I tell you this one is worth it. Whether they are oases in the desert created by heat shimmer, an elephant with an indeterminate number of legs or straight lines that look crooked, optical illusions can throw our brains for a loop. They can also be super fun, and an optical illusion that makes the "Starry Night" painting turn into a moving picture is most definitely fun.

The illusion, shared by Alex Verbeek on Twitter, involves two steps. First, you stare at the center of a spinning spiral image for 20 seconds, then you look at the painting. Staring at the spinning spiral isn't as easy as it sounds—it makes your eyes buggy and your brain hurt a little—but even if you don't do the full 20 seconds, you can probably get the effect.

Aim for staring at the center of the spiral for at least 10 seconds, then watch "The Starry Night" come to life before your eyes. (You have to click "play" first, by the way. The spirals need to be swirling.)

Want a larger version of the painting to try it out on? Here you go:

Van Gogh Starry Night

Vincent Van Gogh's "The Starry Night" (1889)

"Van Gogh's Starry Night" by Christopher S. Penn is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

The effect doesn't last long, but phew. Our brains are so bizarre.

According to a 2009 study by Japanese researchers, motion in optical illusions is still processed in the brain the same way real motion is. So don't be surprised if the moving painting makes you feel a bit woozy, if you're prone to motion sickness.

It's hard to believe that Van Gogh's "Starry Night" could be improved upon, but here we are. Definitely a "moving" experience to share with your friends.


This article originally appeared two years ago.

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Science

Neuroscientist's 'color perception' test will make you never see blue or green the same way again

This is so much more than an optical illusion.

is.myblue, Photo credit: Canva

Thought turquoise was blue? Your eyes might think differently.

A new test going viral online shows how very different we all are at perceiving color—especially when it comes to blue and green.

Designed by neuroscientist Patrick Mineault, the “Is my blue your blue?” test shows where on the blue/green spectrum you perceive each color, and how that compares to the average percentage of other people who've taken the test.

It might seem like some kind of optical illusion, but rest assured, there’s no choosing between black and gold dresses here…though it’s still pretty mind boggling.

Taking the test is pretty straightforward. As soon as you head over to the ismy.blue website, you’ll be prompted to select whether the shades that pops up on the screen is blue, or green.

At first, the contrast between the two colors is easy to spot. But as time goes on, it gets a little more challenging to decide whether you’re looking at a greenish blue…or a blueish green.

Still, the test only takes a few seconds, after which you’ll be shown a gradient chart that compares your color perception with the rest of the world who have taken the test.

The test also reveals if you see turquoise as more of a blue or green color—which was certainly news to me. Unsurprisingly my results told me I see turquoise as blue. That’s because it is blue!!! But I digress.

is my blue your blue test, is my blue your blue, optical illusionTurquoise was never such a controversial colorismy.blue

Of course, Mineault admits that the test is “far from perfect,” and limited by factors such as “the calibration of your monitor, ambient lighting, and filters such as night mode.” He also reminds us that the finds are “for entertainment purposes only.”

But truly, it does feel entertaining to be able to say that “My boundary is greener than 90%” of the population, for some strange reason. And I’m not the only one, several folks have shared their own results on X—many of whom finally have a reason for all those color debates with friends and family.


 


 


 


As the About section of this test notes, many experts hypothesize that language plays a major factor in how we perceive and categorize colors. And this phenomenon, often referred to as language relativity, has been the source of several scientific studies.

In one classic study from 1969, anthropologists Brent Berlin and Paul Kay investigated the color vocabulary in 100 languages and found that color terms followed a predictable hierarchy. For instance, if a language had only two color words, the words would be the equivalent of “black” and “white.” If it has three, they would be “white,” “black” and “red”. With five terms, “green” and “yellow” were added to the mix. And so on. Their findings indicated that while color perception can be affected by outside factors, such as cultural influences, there is still a universal pattern involving six basic colors: white, black, blue, yellow, green and red.

All this to say—it’s amazing how we can all look at the same thing 9in this case, the same color) and our brains paint an entirely different picture. The fact that we have at least some semblance of consensus reality is truly baffling, when you think about it.

If you’d like to see just how your blues and greens stack up with the rest of the world, you can take the “Is my blue your blue?” test here.

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