View Full Version : Best explanation for the dress colors?
What's the best explanation for the differing views of the dress? I've searched but still haven't found anything compelling.
I love stuff like you see on Brain Games. Interesting to see some of it go viral.
Seems to be a matter of the setting on your viewing device to me. This was really A Thing??? Really?
http://www.wired.com/2015/02/science-one-agrees-color-dress/
ApatheticNoMore
3-1-15, 6:54pm
Seems to be a matter of the setting on your viewing device to me.
That seems most likely to me. Why assume it's difference in our eyes (brains really) rather than in screen settings when we're not seeing it unmediated through our eyes anyway but through screens. Do two people looking at the same device see it differently? Her and her friends disagree, but are they in the same room?
When I first saw the info about it, I thought "What's the big deal??? .....if it's just your computer screen"........but then I saw people all looking at the same computer screen, but seeing it differently. I'm not sure anyone has really made much sense of this. But I do believe they are talking about people looking at the picture of the dress on the same device, in the same place, and seeing it differently. But it has all been presented very confusedly.
Yes, multiple people viewing the dress on the same device saw different colors. I saw the original dress and it's royal blue and black. You could have fooled me. None of the explanations I have heard sound particularly convincing. But it begs the question--what else are we seeing that other people aren't?
Yes, multiple people viewing the dress on the same device saw different colors.
Yes, that was our experience. Looking at the same device at the same time , it was like "WTF are you talking about, clearly it's __!" But people disagreed on what it was.
And it is strange, because I've seen subsequent pictures of the dress (not the picture at issue) that show it clearly as blue and black. So it's not that I can't see those colors. But I fall in the category of people who see the original picture as white and gold. Granted, maybe a blue tinged white or light blue, but for the life of me I can't see the black in the original photo.
Did you check out the link I posted? I think, when I look at the center picture, I see it as white and gold.
This was really A Thing??? Really?
I like shows like Brain Games on the Nat Geo channel that illustrate our deficiencies and differences, but I doubt it's a wide audience. So I cut this one some slack if it gets people who don't usually think about this to do so. We perceive the world imperfectly. What are the consequences?
For those of you who have not seen it, here is the photo. Clearly blue and black? Or white and gold? Blue and gold?
http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/039a85d5591f14317decce961ee5c9f57a426fca/c=0-8-570-768&r=537&c=0-0-534-712/local/-/media/2015/02/26/USATODAY/USATODAY/635605843196354135-Screen-Shot-2015-02-26-at-9.51.11-PM.jpg
For example squares A and B are the same shade of gray. But this is an illusion that fools most people. The dress apparently is just seen differently by different people.
http://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelson/images/checkershadow/checkershadow_illusion4full.jpg
My wife sees these three photos and basically the same but just shaded a little differently. To me the one on the left is very different than the one on the right:
http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Untitled-12.jpg
You can tell by elements of the background that the lighting is different in all three pictures. But that doesn't explain why individuals see the same exact picture so differently.
Yes, multiple people viewing the dress on the same device saw different colors. I saw the original dress and it's royal blue and black. You could have fooled me. None of the explanations I have heard sound particularly convincing. But it begs the question--what else are we seeing that other people aren't?
Even that seems to be in debate as I have heard both: That the blue and black is the actual color and then that the gold and white is the real color. I saw gold and white.
[QUOTE=Yossarian;199202]For example squares A and B are the same shade of gray. But this is an illusion that fools most people. The dress apparently is just seen differently by different people.
Hmmmm.......that's really hard to believe (about the squares).
Even that seems to be in debate as I have heard both: That the blue and black is the actual color and then that the gold and white is the real color. I saw gold and white.
I saw a clip of the woman whose shop sold the dress showing the royal blue and black sample, against a backdrop of the same dress in a variety of colors, none of which were white and gold.
Even that seems to be in debate as I have heard both: That the blue and black is the actual color and then that the gold and white is the real color. I saw gold and white.
I don't think it would account for the fact that people see different colors when looking simultaneously at the same photo, would it?
Hmmmm.......that's really hard to believe (about the squares).
When you look at this one take two pieces of paper and cover up everything outside the parallel lines so that you just see the lines and the squares between them.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Illusion_5_edited.jpg
My wife sees these three photos and basically the same but just shaded a little differently. To me the one on the left is very different than the one on the right:
Ok that is fascinating, because to me the one on the right is extremely different from the other two, which my eyes perceive to be the same dress in slightly different light.
When you look at this one take two pieces of paper and cover up everything outside the parallel lines so that you just see the lines and the squares between them.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Illusion_5_edited.jpg This one is funny because if I look at the gray "ladder" they're obviously the same, but I can force my eye to ignore the two vertical stripes and still see them as not the same, even with the proof right here on the page.
Speaking of optical illusions (or tropical delusions, as I call them), I was organizing my son's tracks from his Little Tykes railroad, and I discovered this illusion. I wouldn't have believed it if it wasn't right in front of me.
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f129/Catherine50/IMG_9542.jpg
Here's a pic of them on top of each other.
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f129/Catherine50/IMG_9543.jpg
I thought I posted this but it's not here.
These variations in color perception make me wonder if we see colors very differently, but have learned to call a certain perceived color a certain name, when in actuality they are very different colors. Hmmm....did that make any sense? :)
If a tree in the forest is green, but no one sees it......................
Yep. Cool illusion, Cathy. My DH and I call blue-green-grays differently and I often wonder: are we actually seeing something different with our eyes or brains, or do we just refer to "that" color differently.
I saw this on facebook the other day. The title is stupid, of course we could see a color even if we couldn't name it, but the argument is interesting.
http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-blue-and-how-do-we-see-color-2015-2
Wow Kib..........that's a very interesting article! I did pick out the one square that was different.........but only after staring at it for awhile. Did someone on here post a color test once?.........where there were about 5 lines of blocks of color and we had to arrange them in order? It was interesting.
How wild..........that certain colors only came into mention in different cultures at different times.
My nephew couldn't understand why people were always saying the sky was blue, when it was obviously white. I thought it was because he lived in the PNW with its persistent cloud cover, but maybe not.
I envy those "superseers."
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