Simple optical illusion

[John Gray]

Which do you see it as first?

Person using laptop or coastal map.jpg

[HansV]

I immediately saw the face, then the hand and laptop.

[John Gray]

I saw first what appeared to be a map of part of the eastern seaboard of the United States, with a large ship entering or leaving port.

[StuartR]

I saw the person with the laptop first, and then the distorted white face.

[BobH]

I saw only the fellow holding the laptop and had to read to find that others saw a coastal map outline.

The straight lines of the laptop outline argue strongly against the perception of a coastal map outline, IMO. There just aren't any objects of that proportion having such straight lines and regular angles. My mind couldn't interpret that as natural; so I say the figure.

[viking33]

I think the eyes are drawn to the white mass first and you try to interpret an image there but if you look at the blue image, it's very easy to see the person with hand and finger pointed down toward the laptop.

[ChrisGreaves]

The straight lines of the laptop outline argue strongly against the perception of a coastal map outline, IMO.

I saw a coastal map, so you are wrong (huge grin!).

From what I've read/understood of the brain, we decode the 2D retinal images, wherever possible, as lines, and straight lines before curved lines, so I think that there is a knife-edge situation where the brain dithers between "regular geometric shape" and "animated object".
One of Steven Pinker's books list an amazing (to me) number of naturally-ocurring starigh-line objects to bolster the claim that the eye/brain evolved to achieve geometric recognition; the list includes "horizon, slope of a volcano cone, cliff face etc.

[BobH]

Yes, there are many naturally occurring straight lines but they are not prevalent (at least not for most people); ergo the brain is conditioned from early on to perceive straight lines as man-made, not natural. Views of the horizon for most people are most frequently quite irregular. Even aboard a ship at sea, one rarely sees a regular horizon line - there's some curve perceived in my experience.

I haven't read Mr. Pinker's books. Will have to look into it.

[Skitterbug]

Which do you see it as first?

Person using laptop or coastal map.jpg

I saw the person with the laptop first. Maybe this happened because this afternoon, I was helping my daughter figure out her new laptop! Such fun stuff! And yes, it is a PC, not a MAC.

[viking33]

And yes, it is a PC, not a MAC.
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But of course!

[ChrisGreaves]

I haven't read Mr. Pinker's books. Will have to look into it.

(sigh!) Bob, If I have to I'll skim through them this weekend and lift the page in question for you (yippeee!).

I spend a lot of time looking at maps, especially in books on the origins of The Great War, and when I revisit the image at the head of the thread I realize that I see docks.

That is, a map of man-made areas - with straight lines for the edges of the wharves.