Beau Lotto: Optical illusions show how we see


www.ted.com Beau Lotto's color games puzzle your vision, but they also spotlight what you can't normally see how your brain works. This fun, first-hand look at your own versatile sense of sight reveals how evolution tints your perception of what's really out there.TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at www.ted.com Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks at www.ted.com

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25 Responses to “Beau Lotto: Optical illusions show how we see”

  1. Awabarts says:

    great description of human errors

  2. gammypage says:

    @Astralpua
    It was your brain compensating for the einvironment

  3. inday811 says:

    Thanks for sharing this. it's an excellent video.

  4. xoooooooooooooooooxo says:

    See sound?... Costs $20 NZD and a trip around the corner lol!

  5. Enoa7 says:

    i dont get it... it still looks the same for me =.=

  6. fauxman says:

    strange, some of these illusions didn't work on me and I'm wondering if it's because I'm partially colorblind. Although the desert one was pretty awesome.

  7. disconnect4 says:

    this is mostly color theory work done by joseph albers

  8. BuBBaGump014 says:

    @Astralpua The "opponent process theory" states that the human visual system interprets color information by processing signals from cones and rods in an antagonistic manner. It suggests that there are three opponent channels: red versus cyan, blue versus yellow, and black versus white. Responses to one color of an opponent channel are antagonistic to those to the other color. Therefore, a green image will produce a magenta afterimage. You're normal :P

  9. TNTstuka says:

    @Astralpua me 2

  10. FASSY524 says:

    @Astralpua My brain is baffled. And in mental pain now. lol

  11. FASSY524 says:

    @Astralpua I saw that too.

  12. FASSY524 says:

    @hass1991 Shut up. Everyone has different opinions. If we all had the same opinion life would be so boring.

  13. michalchik says:

    @Astralpua That is normal and his point. you brain makes things under green light see red and things under red-light seem green.

  14. jgoemat says:

    @Astralpua That is what you're supposed to see. You're not training your brain to see red on the right, your brain is starting to think that the right side is under red illumination. If you took a picture where the desert was green and looked at it in a darkened room with only red illumination, it would look normal.

    Did anyone else have a distinct moment when staring at the colors where the green just faded out? It happened to me both times at about 5 seconds before being told to look down.

  15. blurglide says:

    He didn't really explain things very well. e.g. what technique is used to interpret images as sound, how the illusions work, etc. (BTW- as slightly red green colorblind, but still good enough to see they were different colors, many of these didn't work on me)

  16. melee9000 says:

    @Astralpua me too!!! lol

  17. steveb0503 says:

    It's amazing to me that so few people understand even the slightest bit of what Beau was talking about here - no clue whatsoever as to how the brain INTERPRETS what it sees and that it doesn't just simply see.

    I've had people tell me that when you don't know enough about something to know who to trust to inform you about it, all you need to do is trust your "gut" feelings - yeah, right.

  18. Caqui says:

    Anyone know the name of that device Beau talked about, the one that translates light into sound? Do you think if you used that device on the abstract, high art paintings we see in museums, would they translate into extravagant sonatas? Or rubbish? I guess we'll never know.

  19. mariaphhd8 says:

    amaizing!

  20. GWSteffen says:

    Interestingly, I think the green/red light alumination doesn't work if one is color blind!

  21. IHS7 says:

    4:20

  22. StrawberryFields1421 says:

    Great presentation! Just remember, everything that hits our senses is ambiguous. We do not perceive that world as it is, only as our brain interprets it ;)

  23. PoopOfYT says:

    my name is beau

  24. offmyrockervideos says:

    @2010FuckUTube

    hahahaha...that's right neo...the matrix is all around us. lol. very nice.

  25. microsoftaddict says:

    @Yamakashi1 hahaha lets all move to stockholm!