The Internet's latest optical illusion comes via a professor at Duke University, and it's almost as shocking as witnessing the Blue Devils get defeated at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The image is posted on the website of Dale Purves, director of the Neuroscience and Behavioral Disorders Program at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School. In the photo, two blocks are placed at an angle on top of each other. At first glance, the two territories look to be completely different shades of grey. However, after simply placing your finger over the part of the image where the two blocks meet, you see that… well, judge for yourself.
On Purves' website, the apparent difference at the center area is attributed to the Craik-O'Brien-Cornsweet Illusion. The optical illusion was first described by Tom Cornsweet and is outlined in his book "Visual Perception," which was released in 1970. The idea is that a small area can affect our brains' perception of a large area. Cornsweet graduated from Cornell University and has taught at Yale, UC Berkeley, and Stanford.
Beau Lotto created the image. Lotto has given two TED talks and has worked with both the National Geographic Channel and PBS.
- Duke University
- Dale Purves
- optical illusion
