The secret of the "mysterious" dress: why people see it as white and gold or blue and black. Blue and black or white and gold dress? Let's dot the i's! yellow gold dress or blue black
Do you believe what you see? Especially for you - pictures that deceive the eyesight and the brain.
What color is this dress?
This dress (by the way, what color is it?) blew up the Internet and in a matter of hours divided the world into two camps. For those who have spent the last few days in a coma, here is a brief summary of what happened. The author of the photo posted it on Tumblr with the question "What color is this dress?". However, it was not possible to get a unanimous answer: some see in this photo a blue dress with black lace inserts, brightly lit with electric warm light, others claim that the dress is white, the inserts are golden, and the dress itself is in shadow.
The dress became a meme in no time and has already managed to bore everyone endlessly. However, in the end, this illusion is just a demonstration of one of the many ways to deceive imperfect human vision. We have collected 16 more optical illusions that will make you disbelieve your eyes.
Checkerboard Shadow Illusion: Cells A and B are actually the same color!
"Neon" color spread: neon lines make us think that the central area in the picture is painted over with light blue. In fact, the background is equally white everywhere.
Troxler Effect: If you stare at the red dot long enough without blinking, the green circle will disappear.
White's Illusion: The gray stripes under A and B are actually the same color!
Apparent movement: due to the contrast of colors and shapes, we think that the figures are moving, but the image is absolutely static.
Flickering grid: if you look at the picture, it will seem that black dots appear and disappear at the intersections. In reality, all dots are white.
Watercolor Illusion: The light color lines on the inside of the shape make it look like the orange is fading into white, but this is an illusion.
Tile illusion: The horizontal lines are straight and parallel to each other, but the human eye sees them as going at an angle.
Purple Fighter: A more impressive demonstration of the Troxler effect. If you keep looking at the black cross, the motionless purple circles disappear, only the moving green circle remains.
Spinning Ballerina: Is the girl spinning clockwise or counterclockwise? It depends on which foot your brain considers as a fulcrum.
Zellner Illusion: In this drawing, the long lines appear to be non-parallel because the short lines are at an angle to each other. However, in reality they are parallel.
Published on 02/28/15 00:46A serious controversy erupted on social media over a photo of the dress posted on Tumblr. Meanwhile, scientists tried to explain why for some the dress is blue-black, and for others it is white and gold.
What color is the dress, blue or white?
In the vastness of the Web, a dispute broke out about the color of the dress, a photograph of which appeared on the blog of a resident of Scotland, Caitlin MacNeil, writes "MK". The problem is that three-quarters of the voters believe that the dress is white and gold, the rest - that the dress is blue or completely changes its color.
So, on February 25, a girl under the nickname Swiked posted a photo of a dress on Tumblr and asked her friends what color it was.
"Guys, help me, this intkbbee dress white and gold or blue and black? Me and my friends can't agree and we're going crazy."
After a couple of hours, millions of people were divided into two camps: some claimed that the outfit was blue and black, while others were white and gold. But even after the girl confirmed that it is indeed blue with black stripes, the debate on the network has not calmed down ...
A photo of a strange dress posted on the eve of the BuzzFeed portal literally blew up the Internet, turning the topic into a media virus.
In the photo: is the dress blue or white with gold?
Color-changing dress intrigues scientists
Meanwhile, a neuroscientist from the University of Washington (USA) Jane Nitz tried to explain why for some the dress is blue and black, and for others it is white and gold.
The expert claims that it's all about the work of the brain, which finds out what color light is reflected from the object and separates this color from the one that it considers "real".
"Our visual system is supposed to throw out information about lighting and extract information about the color that is reflected in reality," Naitz said.
It is noted that the specialist studied color perception for 30 years. She noted that differences in the perception of dress color are the most significant in her practice.
Different people either ignore the blue tints, perceiving the image as white and gold, or ignore the yellow tints, seeing the blue and black dress.
There is also an opinion. So in what colors various objects are perceived depends on what is more in the retina of a particular person - rods or cones, and on what kind of light the object is illuminated.
Meanwhile, Randolph-Macon College psychology professor Cedar Riener explained that people judge the light in a photo differently: “Some people decide that a blue-black dress in the picture is sufficiently lit (or less reflective). Others think it's a less lit white and gold outfit (it's in shadow but reflects better)."
John Borghi, a cognitive neuroscientist at Rockefeller University, spoke about the dependence of what a person sees in a picture on a set of his impressions and expectations, as well as on the level of attention and even eye movement, TSN reports. For example, the idea of the color of a dress can be influenced by what a person looked at before.
In the photo: the real color of such a heatedly discussed dress is blue and black
How do celebrities see the color of a dress?
Celebrity opinions are also divided, reports Super.Ru. Armenian Kim Kardashian sees the dress as white and gold, and Kanye West as black and blue. Dima Bilan - white with a slight cornflower blue and mustard. Yana Rudkovskaya - black with lavender color. Alena Vodonaeva - lilac with mustard color. Vyacheslav Manucharov - blue and gold. Alesya Kafelnikova - white with gold. Andrey Malakhov - white with gold. Evgeni Plushenko - black and blue. Irina Dubtsova - white with gold. Alena Doletskaya - amethyst blue and chocolate. Nikolai Baskov - white with gold. Julianne Moore - white and gold. Taylor Swift is black and blue. Ksenia Borodina - white with mustard color. Lolita - black with turquoise color. Iosif Prigogine - gold and silver. Valeria - gold with silver.
The opinions of Internet users about the dress were divided: the dress got its own hashtag #TheDress. However, the author of the photo had to admit that the dress is actually blue and black. That is - the published image was processed.
But while non-trivial disputes continue on the network over what color the dress is, the editors of TSN.ua have collected the funniest comments from Internet users on social networks.
Most likely you have already seen this dress, and you probably have your own opinion about its colors. But the whole world still cannot come to an unambiguous opinion. For some, it is invariably blue and black, for others it is white and gold and nothing else!
There were even cases when at first it seemed to a person that the dress was of the same color, and then after some time he was sure of the opposite!
This dress has already done too much trouble. It's time to face the truth and find out what color it really is.
The same photo of the dress, because of which there are so many disputes:
According to some, the original dress, if the lighting was better, should look like this:
The rest believe that if it were not for the excessive light, the dress would be like this:
But why do people see different colors in the same photo? There is one version on this subject, and it has nothing to do with the monitor settings, nothing depends on them, we checked.
It's all about how the eyes of each individual person react to the illuminated object. Some decide that the dress is underlit (or that its surface is highly reflective) and their brain signals to their eyes to compensate. Hence the white and gold color. Others think that there is too much light falling on the dress (or the surface is less reflective) and their eyes show them that it is blue-black.
Everything is like in the famous Adelson optical illusion. In the picture, square "A" is the same color as square "B", although it seems that this is not the case.
In general, it turns out that the human eye sees the image as the brain perceives it. Past experience is also important. If a person has seen a fabric with a similar texture or a similar dress in a certain color, this will most likely affect what color they see in the photo with the dress. Little is known about this phenomenon called "difference in perception" by scientists.
Here is a photo of the actual dress. It still turned out to be blue and black.
Is the dress blue or gold? There are heated discussions on the Internet about color.
People around the world are arguing about the real color of the dress, a photo of which has been circulated via social network Tumblr. And the main culprit of this phenomenon is the Scottish singer Kathleen MacNeil, it was she who posted the photo in her account.
I remember in February 2015, a friend showed a photo of a dress on her smartphone and asked the question: “What color is it?” At that moment I thought why would she ask me, because she has everything in order with color vision. At that moment, I saw it in blue-black (and I still see it in this color if I stumble upon a photo phenomenon on the Internet). And what was my surprise when she said that she sees only a white and gold dress. It was then that I began to ask everyone about the color of the dress, I was interested in finding like-minded people.
As it turned out, even world celebrities decided to play this fun game. It was interesting to observe how someone sees the dress, to compare with themselves and roughly estimate what opinions on this matter are more, which team you belong to.
The original dress is blue with black lace. Designer Roman Originals sewed it in this color. But what makes people see it differently than it really is?
Scientists and doctors dispelled the controversy and explained the reason why people think it is of one color or another.
The explanation lies in the anatomical structure of the eye, namely the retina of our eye, which consists of the so-called rods and cones. These elements of the retina transmit the signal in their own way. For example, cones are responsible for color perception, and rods recognize light signals. The rods respond well to shadows, twilight, darkness, and help the human eye to adapt to the dark. Thus, we can conclude that we perceive the world more with rods than with cones. More about the effect in the video below.
That is why people see a dress of different colors, because the retina of each person is unique and contains a different number of rods and cones, therefore, someone has more rods, and someone has more cones.
Do not be afraid that each of us sees differently, this does not mean that you have problems with nervous system or you have poor eyesight. As you know, the brain receives signals from the outside world through vision. Analyzing the incoming signal, our thinking starts the transformation mechanism, and therefore it turns out that, depending on how much the object is shaded, its color is distorted to the extent that it is.
Also, one of the theories of the dress-phenomenon says that the reason lies in the reflection of light from the object. Color is determined by the wavelength of reflected light, while the brain is guided by these light waves and converts it into color. In the photo of the dress, in addition to the dress itself, there are many objects that surround it and plus the background of the photo itself gives an optical illusion. Our brain, processing all the colors in the photo, cannot immediately give a definite answer, as the colors hang and interrupt each other.
For many scientists who have devoted dozens of years to color research, this example is the most revealing.
An unusual clue to a photo of a blue and black or white and gold dress has also been put forward based on a study on human volunteers. And surprisingly, a person who belongs to the “lark” type of people sees the dress exclusively in white and gold, and the “owls” see it in black and blue.
No matter how many theories have been put forward in this regard, each person has the right to his own vision of this photo. This once again confirms that each of us is unique.
The dress, the picture of which was posted on the Internet, divided the planet into two irreconcilable camps.
A photo of a strange dress (pictured in the middle), posted on the eve of the BuzzFeed portal, literally blew up the Internet. “Guys help me, is this dress white and gold or blue and black? My friends and I can't agree and we're going crazy,” wrote one girl, after which millions of users around the world went crazy.
Look at the image and determine: is the dress in the middle white and gold or blue and black?
Few people could imagine that a simple picture can divide Internet users into two irreconcilable camps. Some vehemently claim that they clearly see a dark blue dress with black stripes of lace, others a white dress with gold lace.
It's really all about biology. The difference in perception is explained by how the human eye and brain have evolved to perceive the world illuminated by light. Light that enters the human eye hits the retina, which consists of two types of photoreceptors - cones and rods, which are taught in school. The rods are more sensitive to light, and are more responsible for perceiving the shape rather than the color of objects. Cones, on the contrary, are more responsible for the perception of color, rather than the degree of illumination of the object. In other words, at dusk we perceive the world more with rods than with cones.
The color scheme in which various objects are perceived depends on what is more in the retina of a particular person - rods or cones, and on what kind of light the object is illuminated.
Rods perceive light intensity due to the visual pigment rhodopsin, which is very sensitive to low-intensity light and is destroyed when exposed to bright light. At the same time, it takes about 45 minutes to restore it - which is why a person needs time to get used to twilight lighting normally.
For the same reason, if a person looks at a dress in bright light, then goes into a dark room for half an hour and returns, then most likely the color of the dress will change for him.
“Our visual system is used to rejecting information about the light source and scooping information about the actual reflected light. I have been studying individual color vision for 30 years, and in this case, I see the most differences in individual perceptions of all that I have seen, ”says Jay Neitz, a neuroscientist at the University of Washington.
What's more, color perception is affected by how our brain tries to adjust colors and light levels to figure out what color an object really is. Just as modern cameras adjust light balance, the human brain does this automatically.
But at the same time, different people either ignore the blue hues, perceiving the image as white and gold, or ignore the yellow hues, seeing the blue and black dress.
Many other optical illusions are of a similar nature, including the famous example of black and white checkerboard cells.
Real dress colors
And here's what the dress actually looks like.
The actual color of the dress is in line with the minority opinion - the posted photo shows that it is actually blue-black.
What dress did you see?
Explanation
How they see white-gold
Looking at the picture, people who thought the dress was white and gold most likely paid attention to the background. Taking the bright backlight for the sun, they decided that the dress is in the shade, which means that its light areas should change tone towards a bluish tint (for example, due to the same sky).
Something like this in this picture, most will see a white dress, although this is not so
How blue-blacks see
"Blue-blacks", on the other hand, look at the light areas of the dress out of context and clearly state that they are bluish or blue, while instead of the "golden" fragments in the picture, they see black, keeping in mind the effect when due to bright light under at a certain angle, black becomes rusty brown or even golden.