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Image segmentation and lightness perception

Author

Listed:
  • Barton L. Anderson

    (School of Psychology)

  • Jonathan Winawer

    (Brain and Cognitive Sciences)

Abstract

Can you trust your eyes? The perception of lightness, or surface albedo, is a hotly debated aspect of visual awareness. The amount of light reaching our eyes is a combination of the light striking an object, the light it reflects (the albedo), and the effects of intervening media. The controversy is about whether the brain represents these different factors explicitly as a set of overlapping layers when it computes surface albedo. The cover image, a variant of the largest lightness illusion so far developed, demonstrates the dramatic role that layered image representations can play in the perception of lightness. It is hard to believe, but the texture within the figures of the two opposed images is the same: it is context that makes one appear black, the other white. For a more striking rendition of this illusion, see the online QuickTime movies in Supplementary Information.

Suggested Citation

  • Barton L. Anderson & Jonathan Winawer, 2005. "Image segmentation and lightness perception," Nature, Nature, vol. 434(7029), pages 79-83, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:434:y:2005:i:7029:d:10.1038_nature03271
    DOI: 10.1038/nature03271
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    Cited by:

    1. Filipp Schmidt & Roland W Fleming, 2018. "Identifying shape transformations from photographs of real objects," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(8), pages 1-20, August.
    2. Tony Vladusich & Marcel P Lucassen & Frans W Cornelissen, 2007. "Brightness and Darkness as Perceptual Dimensions," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(10), pages 1-10, October.
    3. János Geier & Mariann Hudák, 2011. "Changing the Chevreul Illusion by a Background Luminance Ramp: Lateral Inhibition Fails at Its Traditional Stronghold - A Psychophysical Refutation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(10), pages 1-9, October.

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