Optical illusion

[BobSch]

http://i.imgur.com/CLvcc.gif

[Ed62]

Wow! Cool!! As long as you keep looking at the dot, you see color in the walls. As soon as you no longer focus on the dot, it becomes black and white.

Ed

[cabinetman]

While I was staring at the dot...somebody stole my wallet.
.

[cwithboat]

The time required exceeded my attention span.

[herb fellows]

The time required exceeded my attention span.

hahahaha. eXCELLENT ANSWER!

I don't get it. Supposedly if you don't look at the dot, it looks b&w? Whether I'm staring at the dot or not, it all looks blue to me. Is it time to look up 'what's wrong with me' on Google??!

[crokett]

I don't get it either.

[Alex Franke]

After the progress bar at the bottom fills up, the images turns black & white, but it appears to be in color.

Yeah, that's pretty cool. But now I see those colors everywhere I look. lol

[cabinetman]

hahahaha. eXCELLENT ANSWER!

I don't get it. Supposedly if you don't look at the dot, it looks b&w? Whether I'm staring at the dot or not, it all looks blue to me.

Same here. It turns B/W when the time elapses.
.

[crokett]

After the progress bar at the bottom fills up, the images turns black & white, but it appears to be in color.

Yeah, that's pretty cool. But now I see those colors everywhere I look. lol

Oh. I just see a black and white image when it turns black and white. I guess that is why I didn't get it.

[Alex Franke]

Oh. I just see a black and white image when it turns black and white. I guess that is why I didn't get it.

Are you still looking at the dot when it turns black and white? The illusion of color should appear in your peripheral vision, but only if you're still looking at the dot.

Weird that it works for some people but not for others.

[Kristofor]

It worked very well for me (slow retinas, and not color blind I guess), so well in fact that I did a video capture to make sure there wasn't a quick color frame in the sequence.

[Ed62]

I remember one years ago that was somewhat like that. If I remember right, it was in an encyclopedia. It was a black and white picture of the American flag. If you stared at it for maybe 30 seconds, then looked at a white refrigerator door (or similar), you would see the red, white, and blue flag. It's weird how those things work.

Ed

[crokett]

Are you still looking at the dot when it turns black and white? The illusion of color should appear in your peripheral vision, but only if you're still looking at the dot.

Weird that it works for some people but not for others.

Yup. I thought at first the image was black and white and the dot made you see color somehow. I see the colored one, but when it turns B/W I don't see any colors. On older monitors if the refresh rate was set too low I could just see the refresh in my peripheral vision. I'm not sure I still could but I know it used to bother me when I was younger.

[sparkeyjames]

I thought the effect was rather cool. I did however suspect something totally different based on past experience. That being the picture morphing to something scary and loud. It is Halloween season after all.

[Alex Franke]

I thought the effect was rather cool. I did however suspect something totally different based on past experience. That being the picture morphing to something scary and loud. It is Halloween season after all.

lol -- funny you mention that. The first time I opened it, I turned off the sound, stuck it in the background went on working -- only keeping it on the periphery, just in case it was a Halloween prank!

Once it ran its course, I looked at it after it was already gray, and I saw only gray. If I hadn't see it that way I might have thought it was a clever optical illusion prank.