What is the reason behind this viewing difference for the same color? One guess is that our brains noticed the shadow projected on B by the cylindar. And it realized that grid B should be brighter without the shadow. Then our brain just decided to make it seemingly brighter. Another guess is that our brains like repetitive pattern. So it decided that grid B should look like the grid on top-left of it.
llejj
I think this illusion has to do with the color of the surrounding squares, which is similar to this illusion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebbinghaus_illusion
myxamediyar
I wonder if designers and architects account for this effect when planning their creations, because I imagine it would be hard to know how shadows would cast and make the colors look... Would be interesting to learn
brianqch
I remember coming across this illusion when I was a lot younger. Something that helped me wrap my head around the idea that they are indeed the same shade is my drawing a path or rectangle of the same color from A to B. You will indeed see that the squares are the same shade. Like what llejj said, this illusion does have to do with the shadow being casted and the colors of the surrounding squares.
Another thing you can try is drawing a bright circle on both A and B. You will see that the circle in B looks brighter than the one in A.
GarciaEricS
I've seen these illusions before this class, and I always shrugged it off as something that was cool but doesn't really have much practical application. However, now so many years later, I see it in my computer graphics class. Computer graphics is so cool because it's the intersection point of so many fields of study, and studying color has really showed this to me as color theory honestly came out of left field for me (I have had no previous exposure to it whatsoever), but it turns out it's very cool to study and makes me love computer graphics that much more.
zepluc
These illusions tells us that even we are dealing with color for computer, but actually we need to consider all these human stuff.
What is the reason behind this viewing difference for the same color? One guess is that our brains noticed the shadow projected on B by the cylindar. And it realized that grid B should be brighter without the shadow. Then our brain just decided to make it seemingly brighter. Another guess is that our brains like repetitive pattern. So it decided that grid B should look like the grid on top-left of it.
I think this illusion has to do with the color of the surrounding squares, which is similar to this illusion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebbinghaus_illusion
I wonder if designers and architects account for this effect when planning their creations, because I imagine it would be hard to know how shadows would cast and make the colors look... Would be interesting to learn
I remember coming across this illusion when I was a lot younger. Something that helped me wrap my head around the idea that they are indeed the same shade is my drawing a path or rectangle of the same color from A to B. You will indeed see that the squares are the same shade. Like what llejj said, this illusion does have to do with the shadow being casted and the colors of the surrounding squares.
Another thing you can try is drawing a bright circle on both A and B. You will see that the circle in B looks brighter than the one in A.
I've seen these illusions before this class, and I always shrugged it off as something that was cool but doesn't really have much practical application. However, now so many years later, I see it in my computer graphics class. Computer graphics is so cool because it's the intersection point of so many fields of study, and studying color has really showed this to me as color theory honestly came out of left field for me (I have had no previous exposure to it whatsoever), but it turns out it's very cool to study and makes me love computer graphics that much more.
These illusions tells us that even we are dealing with color for computer, but actually we need to consider all these human stuff.