Comments on: Weird illusion causes faces to look very distorted

By: TimmoWarner

TimmoWarner — Thu, 24 May 2012 00:14:00 +0000

This was amazing!

I misunderstood the intention and thought it really was displaying distorted images to the right and left. I figured at the end the original image would come back and when I looked, it would be distorted somehow. I was confused when it just ended without getting back to the original image.

I replayed the video and couldn’t believe they were just pretty normal pics all along.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 23 May 2012 19:52:00 +0000

Presbyopia is a pain sometimes.

I’ve come to appreciate the fact that the number of wrinkles I’ve developed is inversely proportional to my ability to see them.

By: CH

CH — Wed, 23 May 2012 19:25:00 +0000

I’m pretty sure quite many of those faces have been altered.

Oh… like photoshopped? Never mind.

By: saurabh

saurabh — Wed, 23 May 2012 19:19:00 +0000

Yeah, I realized this morning that I was probably wrong when someone pointed out it worked with one eye. Also, it seems to work if you only have one face (i.e. if you cover one of them up), so the effect comes mostly from not looking directly at them. I also realized that these are not exactly normal pictures of these people – they are all a little odd. So maybe that, + lack of detail + the difference between successive images and your brain playing catch-up (adjusting to seeing a certain part of your visual field as a component of the new face rather than the old one) could produce the effect? In that case, the average between R and R-1 would look closer to your distorted perception than the average between R and L.

By: SamSam

SamSam — Wed, 23 May 2012 19:07:00 +0000

NB: you have to play the video. I figured it was a “magic eye”-like thing and that it should work with the static screenshot above, but it didn’t.

By: Keenan Pepper

Keenan Pepper — Wed, 23 May 2012 18:58:00 +0000

No, this is not the illusion. You don’t have to unfocus your eyes, it works with one eye closed, it works with one of the pair of images covered… Basically everything you said is wrong.

By: Liam Perkin

Liam Perkin — Wed, 23 May 2012 18:44:00 +0000

Some of the images were slightly edited. To work effectively, they must line up perfectly, and so some must have been edited, such as Robin Williams

By: occula

occula — Wed, 23 May 2012 16:34:00 +0000

Staring at the black strip in the middle made the illusion work for me, but … now I’m worried that I didn’t see a cross at all!

By: Henry Pootel

Henry Pootel — Wed, 23 May 2012 15:16:00 +0000

Perhaps if two people rob a bank together, and hold a small “+” between them, and the note says, “STARE AT THE PLUS NOT AT ME! AND GIVE ME ALL YOUR MONEY!”

By: zdislaw

zdislaw — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:38:00 +0000

Calling this a “meditation technique I tried” does nothing to disguise the truth of the matter: you were tripping.

By: OtherMichael

OtherMichael — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:32:00 +0000

Unitarian giggle?

By: robcat2075

robcat2075 — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:30:00 +0000

A lawyer with a client accused of something based on a fleeting eyewitness sighting may find that study useful.

By: Jaye Thompson

Jaye Thompson — Wed, 23 May 2012 12:58:00 +0000

When I first read that, I saw “Presbyterian is a pain sometimes.” The resulting “brain ‘Wha?’” was amusing, so I wanted to thank you for the (unintentional) giggle.

By: lumpygravy2

lumpygravy2 — Wed, 23 May 2012 12:11:00 +0000

I hate these things, and those hidden image things, never work for me. Some people are easily amused.

By: MissCellania

MissCellania — Wed, 23 May 2012 11:59:00 +0000

Age-related vision problems may have something to do with it. When I looked at the cross, I couldn’t see any faces, because I wasn’t looking at them! Presbyopia is a pain sometimes.

By: Michael Collins

Michael Collins — Wed, 23 May 2012 07:06:00 +0000

Why dont I get it? Maybe im too old

By: timquinn

timquinn — Wed, 23 May 2012 05:22:00 +0000

This is perfectly awesome. I am totally floored. Two adverbs worth.

By: Wayne Dyer

Wayne Dyer — Wed, 23 May 2012 04:08:00 +0000

THEY LIVE!

By: Incipient Madness

Incipient Madness — Wed, 23 May 2012 03:21:00 +0000

No huge jaws, bulging foreheads, or giant alien eyes?

BTW, it still works if you have one eye closed. Maybe you should try it with just one eye.

By: Incipient Madness

Incipient Madness — Wed, 23 May 2012 03:19:00 +0000

Nice to have you back Mr. Thompson. I’ve missed you.

By: Mark_Frauenfelder

Mark_Frauenfelder — Wed, 23 May 2012 02:45:00 +0000

It might not work for everybody, since we are all wired a bit differently. For me, the effect is so pronounced that it scares me.

By: RichardL

RichardL — Wed, 23 May 2012 02:36:00 +0000

absolute proof that celebrities are in fact Aliens.

By: zarray

zarray — Wed, 23 May 2012 02:22:00 +0000

Some music to go along with this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhrteSZXFzM

By: Sekino

Sekino — Wed, 23 May 2012 02:17:00 +0000

Holy crap, this is creepy! They really look like horribly grotesque cartoons.

By: zarray

zarray — Wed, 23 May 2012 02:13:00 +0000

No, you just look at the cross, and in your unfocused vision the faces distort into caricatures of the previous ones.

By: Robert Cruickshank

Robert Cruickshank — Wed, 23 May 2012 01:53:00 +0000

If I had children, I would show them this, and then explain how it reveals what people look like in real life, when you’re not actually looking at them. While it’s a good thing that I don’t have kids, there’s a part of me that fears that this might actually be true.

By: Luke Campagnola

Luke Campagnola — Wed, 23 May 2012 01:44:00 +0000

http://mbthompson.com/research/

“By aligning the faces at the eyes and presenting them quickly, it becomes much easier to compare them, so the differences between the faces are more extreme. If someone has a large jaw, it looks almost ogre-like. If they have an especially large forehead, then it looks particularly bulbous.”

By: HunterSThompson

HunterSThompson — Wed, 23 May 2012 01:43:00 +0000

I, for one, can tell you with absolute certainty that nothing on YouTube — even with its gang of freaks — compares with existential desperation caused by a Vegas mini-bar.

By: OtherMichael

OtherMichael — Wed, 23 May 2012 01:41:00 +0000

THEY LIVE

By: Mike Norman

Mike Norman — Wed, 23 May 2012 01:28:00 +0000

It’s like looking at every caricature in the New Yorker at once.