« My Visual Illusion | Main | No Longer Overlooking What We Look At »
September 22, 2005
Lateral Inhibition Predicts the Opposite Effect
When I look at this image, I see a square of black horizontal stripes. On the left side some of the bars are colored blue to form a rectangular shape, and on the right side there is an obviously darker, brighter blue rectangle in the background of the black bars. But when I use the tab to remove the black bars, the two shades of blue turn out to actually be the exact same as each other!
The "comment" behind this illusion is that "Lateral inhibition predicts the opposite effect."
Hmmm... I suppose as we "train" and learn our perceptions of what things are are aren't over our life, we rarely encounter cases like these, and therefore, have trouble accepting or believing them. I find it quite amazing. One would think our eyes, that see and determine such fine details everyday in our lives, would be able to tell when two colors are the same! Think again!
If you are interested in this particular visual illusion, which is indeed quite cool, (or many more good ones on this same site), check out:
http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/lum_white-illusion/index.html
Posted by lcisthur at September 22, 2005 11:54 PM