The illusion was very strong on my mobile screen and non-existent on my desktop screen. The screen calibration was different in the latter I believe so the pigeons were appearing as a slightly different colored grey blocks visually distinct from the vertical bars.
“Pigeon Neck” Illusion (2014)
51–60 of 82 posts
Re: “Pigeon Neck” Illusion (2014)
#52Re: “Pigeon Neck” Illusion (2014)
#53I get what I'm supoosed to see but i dont see it, its pixels gliding continuously.
Re: “Pigeon Neck” Illusion (2014)
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let's say you recreate this effect by painting the pigeons onto a transparency sheet, and moving the sheet above a paper with a striped background. The pigeon shapes would appear to bend, when in fact they do not... so in physical form, it clearly is an illusion. As a pixelated image, I dunno: our insistence on viewing groups of pixels as shapes is an illusion to start with.
How is viewing an image on a screen an illusion? There really is an image there when viewed at the intended scale.
The image is a grid of pixels. When a group of the pixels that the human viewer perceives as a worm appears to grow, we cannot claim that the pixels in the overlap actually belong to the background. It is equally valid to claim they belong to the worm, in which case... the worm actually has lengthened.
Re: “Pigeon Neck” Illusion (2014)
#55I was in bed reading this with an eye closed and was very confused until I discovered the illusion works for me only when I watch it with both eyes open. I found this surprising—I know three dimensional optical illusions depend on focus and perspective, but I was unaware two dimensional optical illusions were as well.
Astigmatism? My eyes blur at different angles so various anisotropies show up only when one is closed.
I do have an astigmatism in my right eye—which was also closed. First time I’ve had this happen with an optical illusion, though.
Re: “Pigeon Neck” Illusion (2014)
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can see it irrespective of how many eyes are open or any tilt angle.
So you can see it with zero eyes open? ;) I also see it with any number (>= 1) of eyes open and at any angle. Wonder if GP's phone was on night shift or something similar - the article mentions that color changes impact the illusion's visibility.
No night shift, for what it’s worth. Another commenter mentioned astigmatism, which I do have. I was not wearing my glasses at the time.
Curious to see if anybody with expertise on the topic of optics or visual perception chimes in with some insight.
Re: “Pigeon Neck” Illusion (2014)
#57I was in bed reading this with an eye closed and was very confused until I discovered the illusion works for me only when I watch it with both eyes open. I found this surprising—I know three dimensional optical illusions depend on focus and perspective, but I was unaware two dimensional optical illusions were as well.
I let out a verbal "what the fuck" when I tried this. Same exact thing as you, it's absolutely striking.
I was confused as well. First impression: nothing. Get up and look with both eyes and there it was. Interesting stuff.
Re: “Pigeon Neck” Illusion (2014)
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
A highly optimized brain doesn’t bother wasting time on getting fine details like this correct, it’s too slow and will lead you to getting killed in situations where a rough approximation of what you are seeing is good enough. People have to focus very hard to turn off the optimizations and see what is really going on, some can’t do it at all. Some people seem to be able to see the smooth linear motion by default, pe…
Why do you think it takes more time and brain power to see the rectangles and pigeons correctly (smooth movement)? It was instantaneous and natural for me. I’m not convinced by your logic. It doesn’t seem like a disadvantage for a brain to naturally register the image correctly rather than being fooled by an illusion, especially when it takes zero effort.
I agree with you.
(I think people like to call this “steel man” or whatever but just generally applying a charitable interpretation…) I think their take on optimization is about falsehoods about reality that our brains assimilate to make functioning or survival possible under certain circumstances, like perceiving magenta as not-green or being able to observe a field of grass without being hyper aware of each blade of grass within it.
All of which is good insofar as it actually serves us, but it’s really weird to me to frame it so absolutely. It’s not an optimization if it doesn’t serve us and we’re just misperceiving reality for no purpose, and there’s nothing wrong with you or anyone else who doesn’t. If anything it’s just… “wow, electrified meat evolved to be conscious is really wacky and super subjective!”
Re: “Pigeon Neck” Illusion (2014)
#59I was in bed reading this with an eye closed and was very confused until I discovered the illusion works for me only when I watch it with both eyes open. I found this surprising—I know three dimensional optical illusions depend on focus and perspective, but I was unaware two dimensional optical illusions were as well.
For me it weakens with one eye closed, but I still see it.
Re: “Pigeon Neck” Illusion (2014)
#60Jesus, this illusion is so powerful, you’d have to have a very poorly optimized brain to really see anything else.
If I look directly at a point, the illusion goes away there. And I don't really see anything strong anyway, so I wonder how you see it.