Illusions - I

Perception seems to be a key-item for me. When our mind plays tricks with us, we call that illusion. Several types of illusions do exist. We may encounter verbal illusions, visual illusions, cultural illusions (hmm, aren't they all, maybe I should look into that) a.s.o.

Illusions are as old as mankind. Wellknown examples as "Trompe d'oeil" (yes, there should be a link here, hmm, maybe when I find more time. For now just google yourself).


Very intriguing is what is called the "Hollow Face - illusion", several examples exist, which I will lead you to. Look at the accompanying picture, the little paper dragon. When you do not know what is the matter, you don't see anything unusual. Let's illustrate this with two movies:

1. The Hollow Face - illusion, face of Richard Gregory.

2. Charlie Chaplin - Hollow Face - illusion

This is all about assumption & perception. We know what we see, but our minds are unwilling to accept what it is that we see, so they create our own reality, and we are most happy with it. Try to stay happy when you look out your window and realise this is what we do every day.

For years I was very interested in virtual reality, only to find out, that reality already was quite virtual as it is. The same goes for 3-D objects. Some of us spend a lot of time creating them (not me, I'm just too lazy, although I did try some ray-tracing, years & years back). And always they are trying to create a type of reality that just waits to be rebuild in our heads.

Consider the next picture, especially tiles 'A' and 'B':


Myself, I was very intrigued by the fact that both surfaces have the same color. I mean, you don't SEE the same color! There are several ways to prove that they indeed have the same color. Use a colorpicker to check on the colors (I didn't want to believe it, so I did), or better view the movie:
http://web.mit.edu/persci/gaz/gaz-teaching/flash/plaid-movie.swf

Here, again, it is our assumption that creates the illusion, our minds 'enhance' the effect, by trying to create the picture that would be responsible for what we actually see. If those tiles look the same, than they should be a different color, because the upper one is in the light, while the lower surface is in the dark. If they're the same, they must be different!

We will encounter more of this in the future, because our minds keep on tricking us for all the right reasons, but in all different kind of ways. For now I leave you with the next example, where 'A' and 'B' again have the same color.

(so, for people who think I am quite grey: are you sure it's not just only in your mind?):-)

More from Richard Gregory:
http://www.richardgregory.org/experiments/index.htm

Want to make your own little dragon?
http://www.grand-illusions.com/opticalillusions/dragon_illusion/
http://www.pontomidia.com.br/ricardo/greatweb/gathering_for_gardner_paper_dragon.html
Not just dragons, a skeleton too:
http://ravensblight.com/Illusion.html