A comment of mine on an visual illusion:
Well, first of all I can see the colours changing when the circles rotate... :-P So it doesn't work for me...
But I came up with a general interpretation of motion confusions. In few words it's just processing/ambiguity limitation.
If objects are translating on the retina, there are similar objects in close distance that take each-others place (so it's harder to distinguish them) and changing too much in different ambiguous ways, and besides it happens in the periphery vision which is terrible, the visual processor cannot know for sure what was the "real" source of change.
The only "real" data is the retinotopic luma/chroma values, however it could be interpreted as:
- motion of one "item" from the previous "frame"
- some static items that have changed colours
- "blending" items (the way can be also ambiguous, if change is too fast)
The visual processor can't know for sure what was the "true" change.
In this particular case the speed of rotation is low enough and there aren't clues for "blending" between dots etc., the only "meaningful" transformation that viewers track seems to be rigid rotation.
We see rotation, because that's some of the small differences (motion is slow enough) that can be tracked. But as of colour change, depending on the colour of the dots around, and
Spatio-Temporal Resolution Trade-Offs
From particle physics to video, you can't either move or scan faster and see/measure with the same maximum resolution, using the same hardware.
Error Correction
In general many of these illusions are created with patterns which can't be seen in "normal" environment. There are only special common "objects" that change colour that fast on their own - computer screens and TV sets, and the images generated on them.
Infrastructure
By the way, once I complete one of the milestones of the general infrastructure of my "artificial mind" and imagination, I'd be able to test and create a lot of related-stuff in a blaze. The work is going on, but the details are in "low resolution" for now.
See also my interpretation of the Colour Optical Illusions and 3D-reconstruction with Light sources:
http://artificial-mind.blogspot.com/2012/01/colour-optical-illusions-are-effect-of.html
PS. Thanks to L.J.
Read More
".....Silencing the Change
In the demo below, the colours of individual dots continue to change the entire time, but when the dots move, those changes are much harder to see - the change is silenced. ..."
https://plus.google.com/photos/+AllisonSekuler/albums/5931810534032603025/5931810537230454402#photos/+AllisonSekuler/albums/5931810534032603025/5931810537230454402?pid=5931810537230454402&oid=%2BAllisonSekuler
http://www.cell.com/current-biology/retrieve/pii/S0960982211000303
Well, first of all I can see the colours changing when the circles rotate... :-P So it doesn't work for me...
But I came up with a general interpretation of motion confusions. In few words it's just processing/ambiguity limitation.
If objects are translating on the retina, there are similar objects in close distance that take each-others place (so it's harder to distinguish them) and changing too much in different ambiguous ways, and besides it happens in the periphery vision which is terrible, the visual processor cannot know for sure what was the "real" source of change.
The only "real" data is the retinotopic luma/chroma values, however it could be interpreted as:
- motion of one "item" from the previous "frame"
- some static items that have changed colours
- "blending" items (the way can be also ambiguous, if change is too fast)
The visual processor can't know for sure what was the "true" change.
In this particular case the speed of rotation is low enough and there aren't clues for "blending" between dots etc., the only "meaningful" transformation that viewers track seems to be rigid rotation.
We see rotation, because that's some of the small differences (motion is slow enough) that can be tracked. But as of colour change, depending on the colour of the dots around, and
Spatio-Temporal Resolution Trade-Offs
From particle physics to video, you can't either move or scan faster and see/measure with the same maximum resolution, using the same hardware.
Error Correction
In general many of these illusions are created with patterns which can't be seen in "normal" environment. There are only special common "objects" that change colour that fast on their own - computer screens and TV sets, and the images generated on them.
Infrastructure
By the way, once I complete one of the milestones of the general infrastructure of my "artificial mind" and imagination, I'd be able to test and create a lot of related-stuff in a blaze. The work is going on, but the details are in "low resolution" for now.
See also my interpretation of the Colour Optical Illusions and 3D-reconstruction with Light sources:
http://artificial-mind.blogspot.com/2012/01/colour-optical-illusions-are-effect-of.html
PS. Thanks to L.J.
