Staff Writers
The
results are in for a recently conducted optical illusion poll on Apex High
School students and staff. |
| What color is this dress? |
Some
argue the dress is black and blue, others white and gold, and some see an
entirely different combination of colors. The dress has been popping up on
different sorts of social media, and this controversial image has people taking
sides. While some pick a color team, others argue that there are two images,
and some find themselves constantly switching between the two combinations.
Medical
experts have been discussing the cause for the commotion, and explain that
perception is what is causing people to be seeing different colors. "Color
is our perception — our interpretation of the light that's in the world,"
says Arthur Shapiro, a professor at American University who specializes in
visual perception, "Individual wavelengths don't have color, it's how our
brains interpret the wavelengths that create color.” Some interpret the
wavelengths as blue and black, others white and gold. Shapiro adds, “In
reality, it's light coming off of the computer screen, and then our brain
interprets it and those interpretations can differ.”
Cells
in the eyes, known as rods and cones, interpret the lights as colors or shades.
Reena Garg, an ophthalmology professor, says, “The cones are color sensitive,
specifically to red, green and blue. The rods are shade sensitive and see black
and white.” In dim light, the eye’s rods are used to see contrast, and in
bright light the cones differentiate between colors. The colors also depend on
whether one’s retinas visualize the image of the dress as overexposed or
underexposed. “This photograph was probably taken on a phone camera and is very
poorly exposed,” Garg notes. Those who see black and blue most likely are
interpreting the photo as overexposed, if someone’s seeing white and gold, they
probably interpret the photo as underexposed.
The
perception of color is unique to each person because the cones are influenced
by someone’s genes. Dr. Julia Haller, the ophthalmologist-in-chief at Wills Eye
Hospital in Philadelphia. says, “Ninety-nine percent of the time, we'll see the
same colors. But the picture of this dress seems to have tints that hit the
sweet spot that's confusing to a lot of people.” Haller explains that usually
blue and yellow are the colors that are most commonly misinterpreted, “So
perhaps in this dress, the black has a bit of blue and the gold has a bit of
yellow.”
One
theory is humans have evolved a great sense of color, so people are able to
distinguish between colors by factoring out colors in the light around an
object that might give an object a different tint. “Your brain is constantly
estimating the color of the light that's falling on the object and factoring
that light out,” said Wallace Thoreson, a professor of ophthalmology at the
University of Nebraska Medical Center. “Each of us makes slightly different
unconscious assumptions.”
“It
would be interesting to use this image to learn more about the pathways of how
we understand color,” says Dr. Emily Chew, an ophthalmologist at the National
Institutes of Health, “It would be really hard to create this image. It's
serendipitous. I've never seen anything like this. It's really unbelievable.”
