CAN you identify a familiar face on this black and white grid?
It’s hard to see, but the celebrity’s portrait is hidden between the dots that create an amazing optical illusion.
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A celebrity is hiding in this optical illusion
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There are a few tricks to help you see an obscured star, from shaking the device it’s displayed on to standing at an angle.
Looking at the web while away from your phone or computer seems to be the most effective.
The further away you go, the clearer the familiar face should be.
If you’re still confused, here’s a hint: he’s a late musician who is considered by many to be one of the greatest pop stars of all time.
The answer, of course, is Michael Jackson. Try looking at the image again now that you know the solution – it should appear more easily.
It’s a new take on the famous Magic Eye illusions, which used swirls of dots or lines to hide a 3D image.
Speaking to The Sun, Dr. Gustav Kuhn, a psychologist and expert in human perception at London’s Goldsmiths University, said the visual puzzle is a result of the way our brains process information.
He compared it to a similar illusion of a monochrome web obscuring the image of a panda.
“Our eyes encode vast amounts of jumbled sensory information, and our brains use clever tricks to disambiguate that information and try to make sense of what we’re seeing,” said Dr. Kuhn.
“What you see are the results of massive amounts of neural computing, mixed with a little bit of guesswork.
“For example, when you look at a bunch of trees, you might interpret it as a forest or a tree.
“What you see depends on what aspect of the scene you focus on.
“In the panda illusion, information is encoded at different scales, and depending on which scale you focus on (i.e. trees or forest), you’ll either see a bunch of lines or the bigger picture: a panda.”
Professor Fiona Macpherson, an expert on the Illusion Index at the University of Glasgow, explained why moving further away from the image makes the hidden figure clearer.
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This illusion shows a hidden animal. SCROLL DOWN FOR ANSWER
She told The Sun: “The image of the panda has a certain spatial frequency when it is a certain distance from you.
“The closer the image is to you, the lower the spatial frequency, and the further away it is, the higher the spatial frequency.
“In short, there are more black and white lines falling on the light-sensitive part of the back of the eye the further the image is from you.”
In 2017, Akiyoshi Kitaoka, a professor of psychology at Japan’s Ritsumeikan University, shared a similar puzzle online.
His version showed his own face and the academic called it a “masking phenomenon”.
The prolific illusionist added: “High spatial frequency components interfere with the perception of low-contrast objects.”
The visual trick has even entered pop culture.
It’s on Soulwax’s 2005 “NY Excuse” album cover, which at first glance looks like a monochrome grid.
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This version hides the face of another great musical. SCROLL DOWN FOR ANSWER
However, upon closer inspection, the name of the artist and the album are buried in the upper right corner.
In 2009, psychedelic rock band Black Lips released their album “200 Million Thousand” with a Soulwax-like cover.
But instead of the album title and artist, there was a face hidden between the lines.
Optical illusions are often just for fun, but they also have real value to scientists.
Brain puzzles help researchers shed light on the inner workings of the mind and how it reacts to the environment.
Dr. Kuhn added that illusions are important to our understanding of the brain.
“We tend to take perception for granted and rarely think about the hard work behind everyday tasks, like seeing a cup of coffee in front of us,” he told The Sun.
“Visual illusions highlight misperceptions and provide important information about the hidden neural processes that allow us to see the world around us.”
It follows the release of a spooky illusion earlier this month that made the viewer feel like they were falling into a black hole.
ANSWERS TO ILLUSIONS: Michael Jackson; panda; John Lennon
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Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education