Visual Illusions: Their Causes, Characteristics and Applications — John Shaqi
Visual Illusions: Their Causes, Characteristics and ApplicationsLuckiesh, Matthew
Science
Visual Illusions: Their Causes, Characteristics and Applications
Luckiesh, Matthew
Optical illusions
Lack of correct size and position of the individual elements of
stereoscopic pictures are easily detected on combining them. That is,
their dissimilarity must exactly correspond to that between two views of
an object or scene from the positions of the two eyes respectively (Fig.
2). This fact has been made use of in detecting counterfeit notes. If two
notes made from the same plate are viewed in a stereoscope and the
identical figures are combined, the combination is perfect and the plane
of the combined images is perfectly flat. If the notes are not made from
the same plate but one of them is counterfeit, slight variations in the
latter are unavoidable. Such variations will show themselves in a wavy
surface.
The unwillingness of the visual sense to combine the two retinal images,
if they are dissimilar to the extent of belonging to two different
objects, is emphasized by means of colors. For example, if a green glass
is placed over one eye and a red glass over the other, the colors are not
mixed by the visual sense. The addition of these two colors results
normally in yellow, with little or no suggestion of the components--red
and green. But in the foregoing case the visual field does not appear of a
uniform yellow. It appears alternately red and green, as though the colors
were rivaling each other for complete mastery. In fact, this phenomenon
has been termed "retinal rivalry."
The lenses of the stereoscope supplement eye-lenses and project on the
retina two perfect images of a near object, although the eyes are looking
at a distant object and are therefore not accommodated for the near one
(the photographs). The lenses enlarge the images similar to the action of
a perspective glass. This completes the illusion of an object or of a
scene. There is a remarkable distinctness of the perception of depth of
space and therefore a wonderful resemblance to the actual object or scene.
It is interesting to note the effect of taking the two original
photographs from distances separated by several feet. The effect is
apparently to magnify depth. It is noteworthy that two pictures taken from
an airplane at points fifty feet or so apart, when combined in the
stereoscope, so magnify the depth that certain enemy-works can be more
advantageously detected than from ordinary photographs.
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