Colour saturation optical illusion and why it tricks us
Optical illusions through a combination of colours, patterns and lighting can create images that can be deceptive to our brains.
We have previously shown how four different optical illusions can trick our brains into seeing things in different ways, yet the colour saturation optical illusion may be the most mind bending yet.
When it comes to the colour saturation optical illusion, where it is clear to see that when an object is moved in and out of different background, the brain perceives the colour to have changed.
We have created the below colour saturation optical illusion to show how this tricks our eyes. Does the circle change colour for you?
How does it work?
A colour saturation optical illusion is where the object appears to change colour as it moves through different backgrounds but it in fact just remains the same colour throughout.
This occurs due to our brain perceiving the colour of the object to change when it changes environment. As the moving image shows, the circle appears a lighter blue at the start when up against a darker blue background and the opposite at the end when it looks a darker blue against a light blue background.
The way we view colours and brightness is due to the cells we have in our retina at the back of our eye. The cones are the judge of colour, and the rods judge the brightness of the image we are seeing. These two cells send information to our brain through the optic nerve and the brain from that signal tries to interpret what we see. When judging colour, the brain perceives it differently when it is compared to what is surrounding that object, suggesting why we think the blue circle changes colour in this illusion.
Still not convinced?
his can be mind-blowing, so to prove that it is just the background of the image that changes we have produced a static image of the illusion with and without the background. The circle colour does not change but it is the changing environment surrounding them that makes our brain believe it does.
Colour saturation is just one of many optical illusions that mislead the brain, it will make no difference if you need to buy contact lenses online or have 20/20 vision, optical illusions will still fool you.