Optical illusions are, according to me, one of the most entertaining brains teasers of all times. Mostly because the answer is right in front of you, but again, there’s a reason why they call it an ‘illusion’. Makes you wonder if the world is anything like the way you see it or if everything is just an illusion.
Before I go on a philosophical rant, remember the time people went crazy about the blue or white dress optical illusion? Or the one with 12 dots on the intersection? Here’s a quick reminder of what I’m talking about.
If you loved the above teaser (or even if you didn’t), you’ll surely love this one too! A Japanese psychologist at Chukyo University, Kohske Takahashi, created a new optical illusion called “curvature blindness”.
In the above image, you’re likely to see some lines to be zig-zag and others to be curvy. But that’s just what you see. In reality, all of the lines are curvy. Mind boggling, right? Damn right!
The mechanism behind this phenomena is the carefully placed colour shading. The lines that appear to be zig-zag, the colour changes at the exact point that will make the curves appear like pointed peaks, hence creating the illusion! Quoting Takahashi himself,
“It is notable that observers exactly ‘see’ an illusory zigzag line against a physically wavy line, rather than have an impaired perception.”
In other words, when the human brain is faced with a decision between perceiving something as a corner or a curve, it usually chooses to perceive it as a corner, rather than risk making a wrong perception.
If it interests you, a complete explanation of the whole technicality of this illusion can be found in this article here.
The reason optical illusions are so frustrating is that it makes us question the way we see the world, and of course, no one wants to burst their own bubble, right?