The checker shadow illusion is an optical illusion published by Edward H. Adelson, professor of vision science at MIT, in 1995. [1]
The image depicts a checkerboard with light and dark squares, partly shadowed by another object. The optical illusion is that the area labeled A appears to be a darker color than the area labeled B. However, within the context of the two-dimensional image, they are of identical brightness, i.e., they would be printed with identical mixtures of ink, or displayed on a screen with pixels of identical color. [1]
While being one of the most well-known contrast illusions, there are similar effects which cause two regions of identical color to appear differently depending on context:
The checker shadow illusion is an optical illusion published by Edward H. Adelson, professor of vision science at MIT, in 1995. [1]
The image depicts a checkerboard with light and dark squares, partly shadowed by another object. The optical illusion is that the area labeled A appears to be a darker color than the area labeled B. However, within the context of the two-dimensional image, they are of identical brightness, i.e., they would be printed with identical mixtures of ink, or displayed on a screen with pixels of identical color. [1]
While being one of the most well-known contrast illusions, there are similar effects which cause two regions of identical color to appear differently depending on context: