#illusion

#illusion

Creepy Expanding Black Hole IllusionJust look at this black hole! Is it expanding, are are you coming closer to it? It makes you feel as it you are moving toward the void, doesn't it? Spoiler: you aren't moving forward. Even more surprising is that that is a static image, and doesn't move at all. It's just your perception preparing to move toward the black hole. Your visual perception tricks the brain into getting ready for a change ahead. In developing this illusion, 50 subject were exposed to the picture rendered in different colors, and to nonsensical images as a control. The image that produced the most illusory effect was the black hole. Researchers even detected that the subject's pupils dilated somewhat when confronted with the black hole. Read more about this illusion and why our brains react the way they do at ScienceAlert.(Image credit: Laeng et al., Front. Hum. Neurosci., 2022)#illusion #blackhole #perception #visual perception #optical illusion

Nekita the Makeup IllusionistIs this a painting or a person? Is it one person or two? Keep watching to find out. Under all that makeup and, uh, temporary plastic surgery is makeup artist Esther Aular of Bogota, Columbia, also known as Nekita on TikTok and Neki on Instagram. Her art canvas is her face, and she can make it look like anything. Or everything. Check out a roundup of her works in this compilation.

Gender Bias in Face Pareidolia: Illusory Faces Tend to be Seen as MalePareidolia is a phenomenon where your eyes play a trick on you by showing you a face that isn’t on the area you were staring at. A new study discovered that while we usually see an illusory face, we also tend to see age, emotion, and gender.According to one of the researchers, Jessica Taubert, the study was done to find out if the examples of the perceived illusions from the phenomenon carry social signals, such as gender and expression. From the 3,815 participants, Taubert and her colleagues found a pattern. The pattern showed a bias in gender perception– more illusory faces were seen as male than female. When it comes to emotions, the responses were varied, with 34 percent of the images perceived as happy, 19 percent surprised, 19 percent neutral, and 14 percent angry.Image credit: Harry Grout, Taubert et.al #research #pareidolia #illusion #genderbias #perception

A 16th Century Optical IllusionThis painting is titled The Ambassadors. It was painted by Hans Holbein the Younger in 1533 and depicts the aristocrats Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve. Jean de Dinteville (on the left) was the French ambassador to England whose motto was Memento mori, or "Remember, you will die." His friend Georges de Selve had just been appointed Bishop of Lavaur when the painting was commissioned. The painting now hangs in the National Gallery in London. While there are quite a few interesting objects in the picture, all of which have meaning, what's that on the floor? At first glance, it looks like a sword. Or maybe a piece of wood. It's actually an optical illusion of a type called anamorphosis. This video will make it clear.

Confusing Pictures are Accidental Optical Illusions(Image credit: Patrick Deivernois) How many friends are sharing a toast? Look carefully before you answer. Or look to see how many tiny bottles there are. The human brain takes shortcuts in order to make sense of what we are seeing. We assume a familiar shape is really what we think it is. We group the same colors together in one shape. And we use our experiences to make snap judgments. But photography doesn't care what the human brain does, which can result in temporary confusion.