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    Visual Illusions
    Visual Illusions
    Visual Illusions
    Ebook116 pages26 minutes

    Visual Illusions

    By James Kingston

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    About this ebook

    Visual Illusions, also called Optical Illusions are basically games the eyes play with our brains. They take many forms, there are three main types: literal optical illusions that create images that are different from the objects that make them, physiological ones that are the effects on the eyes and brain of excessive stimulation of a specific type (brightness, tilt, color, movement), and cognitive illusions where the eye and brain make unconscious inferences. Visual Illusions with a descriptive introduction, then details thirty of the most common examples of these Illusions.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTAJ Books International
    Release dateMar 1, 2011
    ISBN9781844062089
    Visual Illusions

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      Book preview

      Visual Illusions - James Kingston

      INTRODUCTION

      Optical illusions are all to do with the mind and how the brain processes and makes sense of the information it receives. Many scientists, particularly those working in the fields of psychology and optics, have spent their careers investigating the way this information is processed and often the only way they can produce physical proof of their work is to construct an optical illusion which uses the properties they describe. In this way many optical illusions are named after their creator. An illusion is a phenomenon in which the physical dimensions or properties of an object or image are different from its appearance because the eyes and brain are fooled into seeing something that is not there. Optical illusions occur because our brain is trying to make sense of what our eyes see, even at the expense of our conscious brain knowing that what we see is an illusion. As the examples in this book show, even when the brain knows it is being fooled, it is still fooled into seeing what isn't there. There are good scientific explanations for many illusions, but intriguingly, some illusional effects still baffle scientists as to how they work to deceive the brain. Interestingly, not everyone will be able to see any given illusion, a mystery which scientists are unable to explain. Optical illusions fall into three broad categories:

      Physiological illusions are a reaction to excessive stimulation—color, brightness, movement, and tilt—on the eyes and brain.

      Cognitive illusions occur when the interface between the eyes and the brain jumps to conclusions about what is actually there, instead of actually seeing what is there.

      Literal optical illusions deceive the eye and brain into seeing an image that isn't there.

      The Eye

      The brain is a sealed unit relying entirely on the body’s senses to supply it with information—taste, touch, sight, sound, and smell: anything to do with vision is supplied with information via the eyes. Babies are said to be short-sighted for a few months after birth; this is not strictly speaking true. Babies can, in fact, see perfectly well but their brains do not yet possess enough information to process and understand what they see. Colors and shapes, near and far, blur into one until the baby's brain learns to understand the signals the eyes are sending. So, from our earliest days our brains learn to interpret the information relayed to it by the eyes and this is how optical illusions work: they fool the brain into interpreting and seeing an image which is not there.

      The eye is an organ which detects light and objects then sends the signals through the optic nerve to the brain. Human eyes distinguish shape and color and thanks to binocular vision, depth perception as well. Simply put, light reaches the inside of the eye through the cornea at the front of the eye; the light then moves through the pupil which expands and contracts with varying light levels.

      The eye is a complicated visual-sense organ and comprises a sphere 80% of which is composed of vitreous humor, behind a transparent front portion which holds the aqueous humor. Its movement is governed by muscles. The amount of light which reaches the retina is controlled by the iris which expands in minimal light and contracts in bright light, a reaction which is most often compared to the way a shutter works on a camera.

      Inside the eye in the bacillary layer lie the rods and cones; the rods perceive light levels and only

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