Which one's the prettiest?

[Admin]

This is a really good illustration of why we can't always rely on what we see.

Look at the picture then walk 15 to 20 feet away from your monitor and look again. Walk slowly towards the picture whislt looking at it.

[Jessie]

Ooooooer that is weird ......

[Admin]

I find it quite fascinating.

One thing we all tend to take for granted is that "seeing is believing". If we see something then it's real. It's things like this that demonstrate how we can be fooled by our own senses.

[Eddiesilence]

Aaargh, oooo, and shudder, all at the same time. That's so weird, that like the responsible parent I am, I'm off to scare the kids silly by proving to them that the computer is haunted...

[Tony P]

I love things like that.

Don't we have some more John? We should put more up.

[Admin]

I have some somewhere - not all as good as that one though. I'll have a look and see what post a few more.

[Nucular]

Heh, that is a good one - I tried to make it into an avatar once, but the effect didn't seem to translate to 100x100 pixels.

Are you sure it's paranormal though John?

Here's another: which of these is prettier?



Does one look a little strange, in a difficult-to-put-your-finger-on kind of way?

Click here to see quite how strange.

[Admin]

Those ones are even better when you only see the one face. Most people don't even spot that there's anything wrong until the photo is flipped.

Then it amazes them at just how wrong it is.

[Aardvark]

I am not sure what the science behind this is but it is probably a pixel effect as picked up by different parts of the retina.

At near distances and when focussing is spot on, the image will fall on the fovea, an area or densely packed high intensity colour resolving cone cells.

At a distance I would suspect that more of the image will fall outside the fovea on to the more sparse rod cells, this is lower energy and lower resolution, but we can use this area better at night.

Or it could be visa versa

I have read about a few studies looking at the imaging pathways of frogs and how they perceive their world. Apparantly they have an adaptation which acts as a bug detector, picking up shadow fall across adjacent photo receptor cells, this helps them react much faster than if higher centres are involved in the decision making pathway.

[Lord Muck oGentry]

Here are a few more:

http://cvcl.mit.edu/gallery.htm

[Dr B]

I wish you could all have come and seen my talk on the paranormal brain....alas it is not going ahead now......

[tkingdoll]

I wish you could all have come and seen my talk on the paranormal brain....alas it is not going ahead now......

Why don't you do it at Skeptics in the Pub then? They're always looking for guest speakers and that's a great topic.

http://www.skeptic.org.uk/pub/index.html

Nick's phone number and email addy are at the bottom of that page.

[Dr B]

I anticipated this (in a non-psychic way of course). I am happy to, but at the moment my time is very limited.

The talk is done and i have given it elsewhere - always goes down well - i would be delighted to do a skeptics in the pub thing - do they have powerpoint facilities????

[median]

aardvark wrote:

I am not sure what the science behind this is but it is probably a pixel effect as picked up by different parts of the retina.

At near distances and when focussing is spot on, the image will fall on the fovea, an area or densely packed high intensity colour resolving cone cells.

At a distance I would suspect that more of the image will fall outside the fovea on to the more sparse rod cells, this is lower energy and lower resolution, but we can use this area better at night.

Or it could be visa versa

I suspect this has more to do with focal length. The same effect can be achieved by crossing your eyes. The picture seem to be composite, obviously designed for different focal ranges (one near and then the position reversed as you move further away)

Bit like the old stereograms of about 15 years ago (was it Bela Julesz or someone)

Mind you, I could never manage to see those which I put down to my lazy eye ???

Err or am I just plain lazy

[Jessie]

http://www.msn.co.uk/htx/signs_taken_for_wonders/

I am so hungry, I would eat the Shrine to the Tortilla.... bit of Garlic and Onion dip would go down nicely as well