Marilyn Einstein

I noticed this excellent face based optical illusion in this Saturday's Sun Newspaper.

If you look at the picture close it looks like Albert Einstein.



If you look from a distance it looks like Marilyn Monroe!



This illusion created by Aude Oliva and Antonio Torralba of Massachusetts Institute Of Technology and Philippe Schyns from Gasgow Unviersity.

This is an excellent example of the different way that our brains can process visual information. We are looking at exactly the same image, but our brain will work out the best way to process the information. The sharp image of Einstein is dominant in our vision close up, but then the blurred image of Monroe takes dominance at a distance.

I notice that this illusion works as well if you blur your eyes.