Blur & picture content

 

Blur Illusion

 

Painting “All is Vanity” by Charles Allen Gillbert (1873-1929). Place mouse over image and observe the change.

 

Comments

 

This is not an “optical illusion” proper, it’s more a physical effect: With the strong spatial low-pass filtering, the blurred version simply lacks the fine details. However, one could also argue that the low-spatial frequency information is masked by high spatial frequencies like in the“Lincoln effect” by Harmon & Julesz (1973) “The recognition of faces”. Related paintings are depicted below; feedback educating me on the unknown sources is welcome.

 

Sources

 

I owe the original slide to Prof. Mackensen.

Interesting background on skulls in culture & art

 

 

Def Leppard album ‘RetroActive’ Wotherspoon ‘Gossip, and Satan came also’ Wotherspoon ‘Society,
a portrait’ 		Dali ‘Voluptate Mors’ (Photo: Halsman) [Orwell on Dali] Dali ‘Ballerina’ Cher, album ‘Heart of stone’
def-lepard Gossip asinus dali-voluptate-mors dali-ballerina cher_hos
           
‘L'Amour de Pierrot’ ≈1905 Au revoir! ‘La famille Impériale de Russie’ (French post card ≈1908) Cat or Couple? (unknown) French postcard
(on Planet Perplex) 		Judge Magazine cover, 1894 “Death to our industries!”
amour_pierrot au-revoir russie cat_couple face_women judge_cover

 

 

Created: 1999-06-13

Last update: 2013-10-04