Same color illusion

The same color illusion—also known as Adelson's checker shadow illusion, checker shadow illusion and checker shadow—is an optical illusion published by Edward H. Adelson, Professor of Vision Science at MIT in 1995. The squares A and B on the illusion are of the same color (or shade), although they seem to be different.

"When interpreted as a 3-dimensional scene, our visual system immediately estimates a lighting vector and uses this to judge the property of the material."

The left image below shows what appears to be a black and white checker-board with a green cylinder resting on it that casts a shadow diagonally across the middle of the board. The black and white squares are actually different shades of gray. The image has been constructed so that "white" squares in the shadow, one of which is labeled "B," are actually the exact same gray value as "black" squares outside the shadow, one of which is labeled "A." The two squares A and B appear very different as a result of the illusion. A second version of the same picture includes a rectangular bridge connecting square A and B to show the are the same shade of gray.

Squares A and B have the same color.

A rectangle of the same color has been drawn connecting the two squares.

The two As have the same color.

Second example

As a further example, the two "A"s in the animated image on the right are both the same color and do not change. The shadow is removed in two frames, and the colors of the chess board are reversed.

External links

• Explanation of the effect
• Illusion of colours

Credits

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