Inside Out

I thought long and hard as to what this post would be today.  And I established some ideas.  But I have decided against them because I feel as though they are over played and that everyone will be talking about that particular idea today.  That's right.  Valentines Day.  Whether you love it, hate it, or simply just acknowledge it is there, there is no way away from it.  So instead of going on a rant or talking about unbelievable romances (because that is all that are portrayed in todays society) I instead decided to talk about my Psychology class today.

It is my psychology of sensation and perception, and we are currently learning about Vision and it's connection to perception and sensory.  One topic that we were talking about was the Pictorial Depth Cue.  Now that means simple that 2D images are portraying 3D images.  These use shading and shadows, retinal image size, linear perspective, texture gradient, and height in the plane.  Now I know it sounds like it's going to be a boring blog, but I promise that it will be a short(er) boring blog.  To be honest, the only thing that I really wanted to write about was about an Inside Out Ambulance Illusion that was shown in class today.  So first watch the video I posted below:

Crazy right? But if you really think about it, it's just based on the shadowing of the paint job.  These are simply just NOT the stereotypical depth cues you would expect looking at that image.  I mean painters use most of these pictorial depth cues all the time in their works.  The linear perspective and texture gradient go together hand-in-hand for painters because they are able to paint what is seen as being closer and farther away, when really all that they eye is seeing is a canvas with colors.

Another thing about colors that blew my mind, is that the eye only has cones in the fovea (front of the eye) so technically all that you are seeing in color is in you focus point and a circumference around that point, when everything else around that focus point is in black in white.  If you look straight ahead, though, it looks as though everything is in color. This is because your eye is constantly moving, even when you think it is staying in one place, and it does this to get samples of colors and make guesses on what they are and that's what you see.

This is why I think that the brain and the eyes are fascinating things. I mean if you really want to get down to it, its amazing to think that everything you are seeing right now is becoming an image upside down through your eye to the rods and cones at the back, just to send an action potential to the brain to send another one back to the eye to allow you to actually "see".  Yeah. Weird. And I'm a nerd. Shush.

Sorry for the random facts, but all I really wanted to show you was the ambulance, so if everything else was boring, or flew over your head, just watch the video to be amazed.