Published 13:04 IST, September 27th 2019
Optical illusion makes people see face on wall, creeps out netizens
An optical illusion is driving the netizens crazy which instructs people to stare at a red dot of a woman for 30 seconds and they see a face on a blank wall.
An optical illusion which looks very similar to a horror movie is driving the netizens crazy. It instructs people to stare at a red dot on a photograph of the woman's face for 30 seconds constantly without looking away from it. According to a news website, the female headshot image has been laminated with a negative filter that tricks your eyes to see colours that aren't there if you continuously look at it for a long span of time. It ultimately means that when you look at a blank surface after staring at the photograph, you should be able to see a woman's face in colour with brunette hair. It first instructs to look at the optical illusion for 15 to 30 seconds and then look at a blank wall and blink rapidly. The photograph has gained a huge number of comments since being uploaded to facebook. It has also gained over 1.3 lakh shares and 16000 likes when the copy was written.
"It is still freaking me out!" wrote one person. "Is this the creepiest??? It is amazing!!" said another, while a third added "Omg! Unbelievable."
Negative afterimage
The amazing optical illusion works with a certain technique called 'negative afterimage'. Human beings contain three color channels ie grayscale, red and green and blue and yellow which allows people to depict colors under any circumstances. When you stare at one colour for a very long time, the cells in the colour channel stimulates for some time before weakening. When you look away from it, you can see a negative afterimage that is present on the opposite end of the spectrum to the original. Dr Juno Kim from the University of NSW School of Optometry and Vision Science said when you directly look at the image from a uniform background the cell doesn't return to its resting activity and goes much lower than that. Hence, the image that people see after looking at the photograph is similar to this:
About the optical illusion
Optical illusion plays a very important role with the brain playing the key role in creating images and tries to protect us from potential threats around us while our eyes playing a secondary or a negligent role. Our brain senses things around us rapidly despite the world being in 3D and the images on our retinas being in 2D.
Updated 13:38 IST, September 27th 2019