planetdan

Thursday, December 01, 2005 :::

Bipolar Illusion

Look at this creepy image, then get up, walk across the room, and look at it again. The mad guy is now happy, and the happy guy is now mad.

And just in case you are lazy or shameful and you can't muster the strength to walk across your room or office to view this illusion from afar, you can see that it works just by looking at this thumbnail, but it's not nearly as cool:

I'm all about cheap parlor tricks. I can't remember where I found this, though. I'm really good at the right-click and saving, just not so good with the remembering of things.

::: posted by dan at 10:46 PM :: [ link ] :: (15) comments

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15 previous comments:

the angry guy looks a lot like Christopher Walken to me. I wonder, if I walked twenty feet away from Christophoer Walken, would he suddentl look less creepy and more like Santa Claus?

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Anonymous, at 12:02 AM

I thought Christopher Walken was Santa Claus. It's got to be true. I saw him as Santa in The New York Miracle Ad Campaign (2001). All I want for Christmas is Christopher Walken reciting The Raven.

http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/ormonde/225/raven.html

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billthecatlives, at 5:23 AM

I thought at first glance that it was David Bowie..

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TracyD, at 7:24 AM

i, like the idiot i am, walked to the other side of the room, came back sat down, and looked at the image to find it looked exactly the same. it took me another 20 odd minutes to figure that it might work best if i walk away and then look at it from a distance!

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Anonymous, at 7:30 AM

Ok, well I'm completely embarrassed b/c I actually got up, walked across the room, then walked back to my desk, sat down...and the image looked the EXACT same.

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Anonymous, at 8:13 AM

and after that, I read the comments and further saw I was redundent to the person above me. But at lease I'm not the only idiot.

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Anonymous, at 8:14 AM

Me thinks I need my perscription checked. How does this work anyway?

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Colleen, at 8:37 AM

ok it worked for me after i read all the comments and figured out how to do it,,thank dan for the great directions...its christopher walken and anglina jolie..strange looking people to say the least..maybe they should have a baby, it would have to look better than the two of them.

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Anonymous, at 9:07 AM

I'm not 100% positive, but I'm pretty sure this is how it is done:
Start two grayscale photos of faces with same size, angle, lighting, basic shadow patterns, and facial structure, so that they overlap nicely with each other. The only major difference should be the expression. Then:
1) Run both photos seperately through both high-pass and low-pass filters, to end up with 4 total images.
2. Combine (simple overlap) the high-pass angry face with the low-pass happy face to make the 1st image, and combine the low-pass angry face with the high-pass happy face to make the second.
That's it!
Basically, at close range, your eyes will be able to focus on the higher frequency patterns, and the brain will use the detailed information to determine the facial features, and the lower frequencies will just appear as shadows. When you move away the eye will ahve more trouble resolving the high frequencies, and the brain will use the low-frequency information to determine the facial features.

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Anonymous, at 9:17 AM

I just figured out that if you kind of look at it cross eyed it has the same effect as looking at it from the other side of the room. This may be because I have spent way too much time on this blog...

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elizabeth, at 10:28 AM

I did that too, walked away and came back to look at the picture. I thought it was a trick to make people get up walk in a circle and then sit down. I see. No…you other idiots are not alone on this one!

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Kristina, at 12:23 PM

Neat .. And hey , Don't feel bad about it . I think right-clicking , saving and forgetting is something common between all computer users .. or just you and me LOL

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change destiny, at 3:23 PM

Anonymous is smart. S-m-a-t smart.

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Colleen, at 6:14 PM

You may have seen it at Michael Bach's Optical Illusion and Visual Phenomena page - it's there.

He's got lots of great and surprising stuff, but thanks for finding/publishing this particularly good one.

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Anthony Bailey, at 7:04 AM

It also kinda works if you squint.

My first attempt, though, was to hold my laptop as far away from me as I could. Didn't really make much difference. Thank you, Dan, for posting the thumbnails for the lazy person.

I thought your instructions made perfect sense, btw.

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alivicwil, at 5:32 AM

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