white or blue dress

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This was apparently a thing, a few years back (the article linked below is from 2015). I only discovered it now and found it surprisingly relevant to the recent discussions here about white balance etc:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/02/28/science/white-or-blue-dress.html

This article was referenced in another one on optical illusions which I also found interesting (but less relevant for people like us interested in processing photos and the intricacies of white balance and color casts).

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I was in school at the time and it was quite a phenomenon. Some people even got angry at each other because they thought they were being tricked and lied to… Fun times.

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I see a blue and gold dress. The other one has growing darkness in a loop like a discontinuous GIF animation. What does that make me? Ha ha.

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This site HD Optical Illusion Backgrounds - PixelsTalk.Net has a few that are hard to believe are not GIFs.
The 8th one called “Black White Illusion Wallpaper” really “moves.” :wink:

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At first glance, these don’t do anything for me except for a mild headache. In order to get at least some of them to work I have to creatively scroll the screen and move my eyeballs around.

The Black White one: I see black fill and unfill the white circles. Is that what I am supposed to see?

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@afre I couldn’t tell you what you’re “supposed to see,” but I agree with your description. That’s the “illusion” I’m getting as well.