Google AI: Optical illusions
Optical illusions or visual illusions are images that deceive the eye and brain, creating a perception that differs from reality. They can play with color, light, and patterns to trick the brain into making assumptions about what it sees.
How optical illusions work
Our brain tries to make sense of the world by interpreting the visual information sent by our eyes. This process normally happens seamlessly, but illusions reveal that our brain sometimes makes educated guesses based on prior knowledge and visual cues.
This can lead to one of three outcomes:
Optical illusions or visual illusions are images that deceive the eye and brain, creating a perception that differs from reality. They can play with color, light, and patterns to trick the brain into making assumptions about what it sees.
How optical illusions work
Our brain tries to make sense of the world by interpreting the visual information sent by our eyes. This process normally happens seamlessly, but illusions reveal that our brain sometimes makes educated guesses based on prior knowledge and visual cues.
This can lead to one of three outcomes:
- A wrong guess: The brain is tricked into seeing something that isn't really there.
- Confusion: The brain struggles to decide between multiple possible interpretations of an image.
- Dual interpretations: A single image can be seen in more than one way, and your perception may switch between the alternatives.
Main types of optical illusions
According to one useful categorization proposed by psychologist Richard Gregory, there are three main types of optical illusions, each with its own cause:
1. Physiological illusions
According to one useful categorization proposed by psychologist Richard Gregory, there are three main types of optical illusions, each with its own cause:
1. Physiological illusions
- What they are: Caused by overstimulation of the brain's visual system from excessive light, movement, shape, or color. This creates a temporary imbalance that alters perception.
- Examples:
- Afterimages: Seeing a residual image of an object after looking away, such as the colorful afterimage you might see after staring at a bright light.
- Hermann Grid illusion: Seeing illusory gray dots at the intersections of a white grid on a black background.
- Rotating Snakes: A static image with a specific color pattern that appears to be moving or rotating when you look at it.
- What they are: Result from the brain's "unconscious inferences," or its tendency to make assumptions about the world based on learned experiences. These can be further divided into subtypes:
- Ambiguous illusions: Pictures or objects that can be perceived in two or more ways. A classic example is the Rubin vase, which can be seen as either a vase or two faces.
- Distorting illusions: Lead to distortions of size, length, or curvature. The Müller-Lyer illusion, where two lines of the same length appear different due to arrow-like fins, is a well-known example.
- Paradox illusions: Present objects that are paradoxical or impossible, like the Penrose triangle. M. C. Escher's artwork famously uses these.
- Fiction illusions: Cause you to see a figure that is not actually in the stimulus. The Kanizsa triangle is an example, where a bright white triangle appears even though it is only implied by the shapes around it.
- What they are: Formed when two separate images are interpreted by the brain as a single, fluid picture.
- Examples: Some types of literal illusions are found in fine art, where a larger image is constructed from smaller, separate images. They can also occur when our eyes see two different images that the brain then processes as one.
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