I spy something black, no white, errr, black, no, wait, white again.
OK, let’s make this a little simpler.
I spy an optical illusion.
What researchers have learned from that optical illusion created by Arthur Shapiro explains more about how the human brain reacts to color stimuli.
I guess it’s around fourth grade when we diligent students first learn there’s more inside our eyeball than goo. Rods and cones are part of the package.
Back then, we were told the basics, that the cones detect color variations in red, green and blue.
Now thanks to studies using Shapiro’s optical illusions we know the information gathered by these internal gadgets is a little more complicated than that. It’s not just color but the wavelengths of light - short, medium and long - that are processed. In addition, they can measure and gauge brightness. Contrast also plays a role in our perceptions and mapping of colors.
All that information is plotted inside the old brain pan to create a three-dimensional representation of color visible to the human eye.
Of course, keep in mind that it’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye, but in my personal experience most of the time those lost things turn up under the couch cushions.
Keep looking!
Image: thewidowsden
Tags: eyeball, eye, vision, optical illusion, rods and cones, cones, Arthur Shapiro, I Spy, colors
