Baffling optical illusion goes viral – but what colour do YOU see these circles as? (And it’s probably wrong)
Professor David Novick posted the image called 'Confetti' onto his Twitter page - and it's been shared thousands of times
A BAFFLING optical illusion is sweeping across the internet and it's sure to leave you puzzled.
An image, created by University of Texas academic, Professor David Novick, features 12 circles within multi-coloured horizontal lines.
From afar they appear different colours, but actually they are the same shade - which you can see when looking at them close up.
Prof Novick captioned the post, which has been re-tweeted 6,400 times and has 17,000 likes, 'Confetti'.
He said: "A new Munker illusion, which I call confetti.
"All the dots in the background are the same colour (RGB 250, 219, 172) but are perceived as four different colours. The differences are subtle, though, and depend on the size of the image when it's viewed."
He explained the illusion occurred due to the horizontal stripes having different colours and crossing the circle – this is commonly known as Munker-White’s illusion.
Explaining the Munker illusion, Prof Novick said: "The Munker illusion appears to be a function of the framing colours, which tend to tint the central [shape]. The apparent colour of the central circle is a mix of the foreground framing colour and the circle's colour."
So, it is just our brain's way of perceiving colour - explaining why you see things differently depending on where they are placed and what they are placed between.
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