Weird illusion causes faces to look very distorted

[Video Link] Follow the instructions on this video and prepare to be freaked out.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

MORE: optical illusions

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http://rhinocrisy.org/ saurabh

Cool, okay, so unfocusing your eyes makes your brain try to see both faces as a corresponding halves of a stereo image. Consequently it tries to force its representation of those features towards each other, making both of them tend to some horrific average of these two. Exercise for the reader: construct the intermediate image by morphing the two celebs together, and see if it matches what you see in your peripheral vision via this flash-test.
- David Pescovitz
  
  Nooo! Those are their true alien faces!!! Quick, someone call David Icke! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
  
  http://boingboing.net/2010/09/01/videos-that-prove-th.html
  - http://borborygmist.influxofdust.com/ Wayne Dyer
    
    THEY LIVE!
- Keenan Pepper
  
  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.
  - http://rhinocrisy.org/ saurabh
    
    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.
Rich Keller

This reminds me of a meditation technique I tried where I stared into the eyes of my own reflection in dim light. After a short while, I developed tunnel vision and my face seemed to rapidly change and settled on something that looked almost Neanderthal.
- http://fiercefamily.com zdislaw
  
  Calling this a “meditation technique I tried” does nothing to disguise the truth of the matter: you were tripping.
Barry Pemberton

Crossing my eye’s doesn’t work as I can’t see this or magic eye images or any “stereo images.” I’d rather be entertained by Conan’s “If they made it” segments.

Also signing into comment makes me want to cry.
- zarray
  
  No, you just look at the cross, and in your unfocused vision the faces distort into caricatures of the previous ones.
- SamSam
  
  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.
blueelm

I don’t understand at all. I see the cross, and slightly blurry/less clear versions of each face on either side. I notice the eyes more than I do normally, and the forehead/bone structure seems exaggerated. I wouldn’t call it ugly, just less clear. But what would I expect from not looking directly at either image?
- Mark_Frauenfelder
  
  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.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness
  
  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.
luther_blissett5

That was like an acid flashback, or perhaps similar to the hallucinogenic visions Hunter S. Thompson experienced in Vegas.
geekd

Now I have a headache.
Nicky G

that’s some serious impressionism, yo
Mike Norman

It’s like looking at every caricature in the New Yorker at once.
http://www.xradiograph.com/ OtherMichael

THEY LIVE
HunterSThompson

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.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness
  
  Nice to have you back Mr. Thompson. I’ve missed you.
Luke Campagnola

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.”
Robert Cruickshank

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.
http://celesteagnes.blogspot.com/ Sekino

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

Some music to go along with this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhrteSZXFzM
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_SBV6POAMW5H4AKN54PNGQJ3G6I RichardL

absolute proof that celebrities are in fact Aliens.
timquinn

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

Why dont I get it? Maybe im too old
- http://www.misscellania.com/ MissCellania
  
  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.
  - Jaye Thompson
    
    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.
    - http://www.xradiograph.com/ OtherMichael
      
      Unitarian giggle?
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    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.
lumpygravy2

I hate these things, and those hidden image things, never work for me. Some people are easily amused.
http://thisisonlya.blogspot.com robcat2075

A lawyer with a client accused of something based on a fleeting eyewitness sighting may find that study useful.
- Henry Pootel
  
  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!”
occula

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!
http://twitter.com/liamsquiam Liam Perkin

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
CH

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

Oh… like photoshopped? Never mind.
TimmoWarner

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.