If you are a fan of optical illusions, you are going to love this brainteaser with a hidden image. At first glance, youâll see black and white lines. However, if youâre able to change your perspective and introduce a new âdimensionâ to your perception, a hidden image appears where nothing was before.
Posted originally by nanotech engineer Dr Michelle Dickinson via Twitter, this image has started doing the rounds on the internet and everyone is baffled by it. Iâve been trying forever to see whatâs supposed to be there and still havenât figured it out yet. Apparently, if you can see the hidden image in the first 5 seconds, youâre a genius!
Dickinson writes, âYou can only see this optical illusion if you shake your head (Iâm serious).â
Can you see anything in this hidden image?
If you shake your head from left to right while looking at this picture, you should be able to see something pop out. Can you see it yet? Okay, maybe donât try this in public, you may get a few sideways glances or raised eyebrows if you do. If you do it right, and fast enough, the hidden image you should be able to see is⊠a cat! Did you get it right?
I wanted to know if there was another way to see the hidden image, so I tried squinting. Guess what? It worked! You can squint, or relax your eyes, and get the same result. Optical illusions are fascinating, but how do they work?
Well, truth be told, our sense of light and dark is a bit unreliable. Our brains are able to perceive lighter values much more quickly than dark values. Because of this, what we see isnât always whatâs there. Altering your perception by using motion can reset what information your eyes âshowâ you. Blinking, squinting, and looking right and left fuels the illusion of motion.
According to Inside Science, âWhen you look at something, what youâre really seeing is the light that bounced off of it and entered your eye, which converts the light into electrical impulses that your brain can turn into an image you can use.â Sounds complicated, right? Well, it is. The brain, and our visual perceptions, are both incredibly fascinating topics full of surprises.
Other optical illusions you can try:
First, letâs see if you can find the hidden image with the cat one more time. Remember, try squinting if moving your head left to right doesnât work for you.
Next, letâs try out the Kanisza triangle. Have you heard of this one? The idea here is to count how many shapes you see.
When you look at this series of images, what shapes do you see? This might seem like a pretty simple question, but youâre probably going to get a little confused with the answer. Ready? If you think you see a white triangle, a black lined triangle, and 3 black circles, youâre wrong. there are actually no shapes present in this image. What we have here is 3 solid lines, and 3 disk fragments. It is the perception of luminescence that makes us think there are shapes present when there really arenât.
Can you think of any other hidden image or optical illusion challenges you really enjoyed? Check these out:
