Visual Illusions: Their Causes, Characteristics and ApplicationsLuckiesh, Matthew
Science
Visual Illusions: Their Causes, Characteristics and Applications
Luckiesh, Matthew
Optical illusions
No brightness-contrasts are seen correctly and often the illusions are
very striking. If a series of gray papers is arranged from black to white,
with the successive pieces overlapped or otherwise juxtaposed, a series of
steps of uniform brightness is not seen. An instrument would determine the
brightness of each as uniform, but to the eye the series would appear
somewhat "fluted." That is, where a light gray joined a darker gray the
edge of the former would appear lighter than its actual brightness, and
the edge of the darker gray would appear darker than it should. This may
also be demonstrated by laying a dozen pieces of white tissue paper in a
pile in such a manner that a series of 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., thickness would
be produced. On viewing this by transmitted light a series of grays is
seen, and the effect of contrast is quite apparent. Such a pattern can be
made photographically by rotating before a photographic plate a disk with
openings arranged properly in steps.
Many demonstrations of the chief illusion of brightness-contrast are
visible at night under glaring lighting conditions. It is difficult or
impossible to see objects beyond automobile headlights, and adjacent to
them, in the visual field. Objects similarly located in respect to any
surface sufficiently bright are more or less obscured. Characters written
upon a blackboard, placed between two windows, may be invisible if the
surfaces seen through the window are quite bright, unless a sufficient
quantity of light reaches the blackboard from other sources.
Stage-settings have been changed in perfect obscurity before an audience
by turning on a row of bright lights at the edge of the stage-opening. The
term "blinding light" owes its origin to this effect of
brightness-contrast.
The line of juncture between a bright and a dark surface may not be seen
as a sharp line, but as a narrow band of gray. When this is true it is
possible that an undue amount of area is credited to the white. In
preceding paragraphs we have seen the peculiar effect at the border-lines
of a series of grays. This may have something to do with the estimate;
however, irradiation may be due to excitation of retinal rods and cones
adjacent to, but not actually within the bright image.
A remarkable effect which may be partially attributable to irradiation can
be produced by crossing a grating of parallel black lines with an oblique
black line. At the actual crossings the black appears to run up the narrow
angle somewhat like ink would under the influence of surface tension. This
is particularly striking when two gratings or even two ordinary
fly-screens are superposed. The effect is visible when passing two
picket-fences, one beyond the other. If a dark object is held so that a
straight edge appears to cross a candle-flame or other light-source, at
this portion the straight edge will appear to have a notch in it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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