Optical illusions / Another way of perceiving our environment

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Gif_Optical illusions.gif

First of all my respectful greeting to all the academic and scientific community of Hive.blog, especially to #stemsocial, #curie, #ocd, in this opportunity we will continue using our referential fraction of the electromagnetic spectrum, that is to say, the white or visible light before our natural optical systems (eyes), this with the purpose of analyzing certain optical illusions that sometimes are generated in our retina and with this the optical nerve transmits it to our brain.

Introduction

By carefully observing our environment we can be reliable witnesses of the development of countless phenomena, and the same of essential importance for our existence in this vast, complex but majestic universe, in previous articles we have made a wonderful journey through our electromagnetic spectrum, and the same developed and structured thanks to the knowledge acquired from our referential fraction as it is the white light or visible to our natural optical systems (eyes).

In reality, without a doubt we have to express that thanks to the phenomenon of light we have been able to capture any space-time that surrounds us, and with it, the development of the innumerable phenomena of vital importance for our exponential development, in the previous(delivery we could relate to important optical instruments that thanks to the implementation of the luminous rays transporters of the images have greatly facilitated the description and learning of any phenomenon that develops in our environment.

In this way we were able to verify that thanks to the spectral fraction of white or visible light applied to these splendid optical instruments we have been able to extract any type of knowledge of our natural environment, especially the generation or formation of the images we observe.

Our eyes are receptors of light rays emitted by particles, bodies or objects coming from outside our body. When entering the optical system (eye), these light rays develop other intrinsic phenomena such as refraction, which is of vital importance for the proper projection of light rays on our retina, and thus significantly affecting the quality of these images transported.

In this opportunity we will use again our referential fraction of white or visible light to continue deepening in the understanding of the generation of images in our ocular system, and in this way we will focus particularly on the generation of images called optical illusions, and we can capture them in any space-time that surrounds us.

Therefore, we can say that optical illusions are some images that we perceive of our outside world, but in a different way as they really are, and for this to happen there must be a number of aspects or characteristics that manage to develop certain effects in these real images, among these characteristics are the behavior of the wavelengths representative of certain colors, but also the influence of certain light sources when viewing the body or object, also our position at a certain time, and the fixation of our gaze on a fixed point or area, among many others that we will be analyzing in general in this delivery.

It is important to highlight that physical science through its fertile geometric optics has provided us with essential concepts and fundamental principles for the proper understanding of the formation of any type of image, both in artificial optical devices and in our ocular system, therefore, to enter into context on this occasion we will link with some ways to generate optical illusions, such as the Meller-Lyer, the postimagen, the fatigue effect, among other interesting phenomena that achieve or allow the development of an optical illusion in our retina and thus in our brain.

Optical illusions

So far we have expressed that by means of the luminous rays emitted by any particle, body or object, we can visualize our environment as it really is, however, it does not always happen this way, and therefore, we will be analyzing in a general way the generation of some illusory images captured under certain conditions or circumstances, but that at first sight we think they are real.

Therefore, it is necessary to express that in certain occasions we can capture some images that are not in accordance with our objective reality, of course, they are usually under certain conditions or characteristics mentioned above and that achieve the generation of an optical illusion, then we will relate to a wonderful optical illusion that I managed to capture with the camera of my cell phone in one of the rooms of my home, but first let's observe certain conditions necessary for such optical illusion in the following figure 1.

Figure 1. Some conditions for the generation of an optical illusion

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In the previous figure 1, we could observe some important conditions for us to obtain a certain optical illusion as the one we will observe in the following figure 2.

Figure 2. Optical illusion captured by the camera of a cell phone when observing a light bulb

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In the previous figure 2, we can see how our optical illusion resembles that of a baseball cap when we focus on the bulb with the camera of a cell phone, and therefore, we prove that an optical illusion differs from our objective reality, since certain conditions were necessary for this to occur, such as the position of our phone, the lighting of our bulb, as observed in the previous figure 1.

In the previous example we witness the implementation of light rays for the visualization of a shape or figure that does not really exist, however, there is no doubt that it attracts our attention, however, this same artificial light source can offer us another figure by changing the angle of focus of our camera and the same now located in front of the bulb at 90°, as you can see in the following figure 3.

Figure 3. Optical illusion caused by a light bulb captured by a cell phone camera placed at 90° (front) to the light bulb

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In the previous figure 3, we were able to witness what was previously expressed in relation to the conditions that must exist for us to be in the presence of a certain optical illusion, but we will not always have the opportunity to visualize illusory images as shown in the previous figures 2 and 3, so that in certain occasions these optical illusions can be blurred or diffuse, as you can see in the following figure 4.

Figure 4. Optical illusions (blurred images)

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When observing the previous figure 4, we can notice many characteristics, for example, when we move away from it we notice how the fractions of black colors come together and if we move away the opposite happens and the fractions of white colors increase, it also gives us the feeling of being a microscopic observation, I am sure my dear readers that you will be able to visualize other more characteristics when observing this image carefully, however, we can continue relating to other types of optical illusions and enjoy the action of the light rays of our visible spectral fraction.

The Muller-Lyer illusion

This type of optical illusion besides being well known can also impact us a lot, because as you can see this illusion makes us see different sizes to certain segments of the same size, and for its effect we must add simple features such as placing other segments at each of the ends of the central segments, as you can see below in the following figure 5.

Figure 5. Muller-Lyer optical illusion

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However, our important visual sense can perceive the emission of light rays which show that such perceptions are limited, and this allows us to be confused with optical illusions such as those shown in the following figure 6.

Figure 6. Optical illusions, misleading perception

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In the previous figure 6, we can see the same size image of a charming girl repeated three times, and it gives us the sensation that the third image is taller, however, this effect is achieved thanks to the lines on the wall and on the floor.

Post-imaging optical illusion

This optical action can be achieved by staring at the same figure for several seconds, this causes the light rays to constantly hit our retina, recording the observed image for a few seconds, and when we look at another point we will see the previously focused image, as you can see in the following figure 7.

Figure 7. Postimagen Phenomenon

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We continue our search for other incredible optical phenomena such as the one observed in figure 8 below.

Figure 8. Optical illusion, flickering gray dots

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In the wonderful figure 8, we are witnesses of another optical illusion since this rectangle is constituted by rows and columns that cross in white points, but when visualizing these crosses or white points we have the sensation of observing gray points, however, when we fix our look in some of these sections we see white points again.

Optical illusion, fatigue effect

To witness this effect, let's look at the following figure 9, and if you want to see the small colored ellipses disappear, concentrate your eyes without blinking for a few seconds on the black dot in the center of figure 9.

Figure 9. Optical illusion due to fatigue effect

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When staring at a certain image, our retina may suffer a type of fatigue and this causes these figures to disappear momentarily, since the light rays that carry these images are dispersed, concentrating on the rays that carry the black point.

To close with the visualization of some optical illusions we must make reference to another wonderful illusory action to our visual sense as the one that we will observe in the following figure 10.

Figure 10. Optical illusion of apparent curved lines

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In the previous figure 10, we have the sensation of observing curved lines without existing, since they are all parallel lines, however, what confuses us are those light rays emitted by some small squares within the larger squares, to check this we remove the small squares and we will notice that there are no curved lines, this can be visualized in a better way in the next figure 11.

Figure 11. Actual image of the above optical illusion

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Conclusion

In this opportunity we implemented again to our spectral fraction of white or visible light for the analysis of the generation of some optical illusions, and they are captured by our natural optical systems (eyes) through certain conditions or characteristics that allowed us to enjoy the generation of such illusory images.

In general, we can say that we are able to capture the formation of images of our environment as they are, i.e., objective and therefore real, however, we were able to verify that we can find countless visual effects that lead us to confusion, and therefore, to the generation of the described optical illusions.

We could find these optical illusions in any part of our activities, since the propagation of light to our eyes can be influenced by various effects that cause some kind of distortion or confusion for our optical systems (eyes), however, we can enjoy them as we did with each of the optical illusions that we share in this article.

It is important to emphasize that we were able to achieve our objective and develop wonderful illusory images, which are undoubtedly transported by the luminous rays in the form of straight lines emitted by certain particles, bodies or objects present in our precious environment.

Until another delivery my appreciated readers of Hive.blog, specially to the members of the great community of #Stemsocial, which receives the support of another wonderful community like #curie, reason why I recommend widely to be part of this exemplary project, since they allow us to emphasize the wonderful task of the academy and the enormous work of all the field of science.

Note: All images were created using Power Point and the animated gif was created with the PhotoScape application, the photostatic images were captured by the optical instrument (camera) of the ZTE BLU Life Play 2 cell phone.

Bibliographic references consulted and recommended

[1]Charles H. Lehmann. Analytical Geometry

[2]Optical Illusions

[3]Understanding Optical Illusions



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7 comments
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Thanks for your contribution to the STEMsocial community. Feel free to join us on discord to get to know the rest of us!

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Thank you community for the valuable support. Regards

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It is interesting to know that lighting and shapes of an image or object can create a different visual perception. Optical illusions are created due to this, but I quite intrigue about how optical illusion are processed thru our brains. If the perception to our environment is affected by many factors like having optical illusion, can we relate it to some cognitive biases of visual perception? !wine

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Greetings @juecoree.

The phenomenon of light and its luminous rays have allowed us to perceive our wonderful environment in an objective and illusory way, as we could witness in the examples shown here, this is transferred from our natural receiving screen (retina) to our brain through the optic nerve, a journey as you mention interesting to know.

Thank you brother for your important contribution.

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