Enjoy this strange new audiovisual illusion from Caltech scientists

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/10/11/enjoy-this-strange-new-audiovi.html

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I saw 3 flashes with or without sound, the first two on top of each other. I think that means my horse has diabetes.

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I saw three flashes when I first ran the video (and I had my sound off from a previous video).
The flashes looked like 1…2,3 with 2 and 3 almost on top of each other
Then that pattern stuck whether there was sound or not.
Weeerd

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Same here. 3 flashes every time with no sound on at all.

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Obligs…

2

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But I knew the answer was going to be 2. They didn’t really fool me.

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I only saw two full flashes with or without beeps, but I also saw additional faint “ghost” flashes in the same locations as the real, with and without beeps. Maybe the refresh rate of the monitor has something to do with it?

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I only saw two flashes, but I wonder if that’s because I was expecting the illusion. Either that, or it could be a product of my amblyopia – because I lack binocular vision, I’m not susceptible to some optical illusions, and this might be one of them.

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Hum, mildly interesting. I wonder how this effect is going to be monetized?

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I only saw two flashes both times, too. But with sound on, there was some unexplained ‘feeling’ that something was wrong. Like my brain was trying to correlate flashes with beeps, but there was a mismatch and it wasn’t happy about it. It was an odd feeling. The closest would be that feeling that “something here isn’t right”. Anyone else feel that?

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It didn’t work for me… at all. Sound on or off.

Maybe that means that I’d have found the droids I was looking for.

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That pretty much articulates what I experienced, except that I can’t be definite about how many flashes I saw: there was just “some flashing” going on somewhere below the cross, and my brain was trying (and failing) to link it to the beeps.

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Doesn’t seem a fair test. Focusing on the crosshair causes you to use your poor peripheral vision to look for the flashes. Not sure if you should call it an illusion or just a confusion.

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That’s precisely the point. Your brain fabricates images that your eyes did not see in order to meet its expectations of what should be there in your peripheral vision.

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Yes, but linking the audio to vision might be a stretch. I didn’t read the study: did they run the test with multiple beeps and the results were the same? 4 beeps = 4 flashes, etc?

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/10/12/this-illusion-supposedly-trick.html

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Déjà vu: https://boingboing.net/2018/10/11/enjoy-this-strange-new-audiovi.html

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I saw 2 flashes. Then 3 beeps with 2 flashes.

To qualify, I’m learning to play drums and I have a metronome app that’s set to beep on quarter notes and flash on 1/8 notes. I’ll stare at my phone as I’m playing.

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