Reddish-Green and Bluish-Yellow: Colors that you aren't supposed to see

[3dphoto]

I ran across an article in the February issue if Scientific American regarding perception of colors we aren't supposed to see.  Rather interesting, but apparently red & green, and blue & yellow are optical opposites in our retina.  We can see yellow directly, but red/green also shows up as yellow.  I haven't fully digested this, but there is a way to bypass this and temporarily perceive this forbidden colors, at least for some people.

They printed a stereo pair in the magazine for red/green.  Basically, fuse the images below and just sit there for a minute.  If neither of your eyes are particularly dominant, the image can settle into a balance of the two colors, and you see, literally, a reddish green color that you cannot replicate in paint.  Same with the blue/yellow combo.

I'm sure the Vatican condemns these experiments, citing that we are trying to bypass the mechanisms we were given at birth and performing magical hooey that will possibly condemn us.  Also, they condemned Avatar (yes, they really did on that one).

Here's some online info on this.   Also, pick up the Scientific American issue if you want to see some fancy retinal spectral response diagrams explaining it.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opponent_process

For this experiment- cross-eyed or parallel make no difference.  But you can't do anaglyph! 

Jeff

[billhume]

Oh dear, my eyes hurt (and my brain). I can fuse the two (x-eye) but the composite image simply slowly alternates between dirty red and dirty green (No1) or between bluish and yellowish (no2). Sometimes I get part red/part green or part blue/part yellow, but nothing a good airbrush artist couldn't replicate. Doesn't work for me..........sorry.
Kindest regards from Scotland,
Bill H.

[3dphoto]

The red/green works better for me, but when you say "dirty red" or "dirty green" I think you are seeing it.

[montymintypie]

IT'S BEAUTIFUL

Stare at that too long, I bet it's bound to give you a headache.

I seem to be only briefly able to see the in between colour, and it's an odd thing, to be sure. Also, if I stare at the two for a while, for example on the top one, I'll see full red, then it'll shift to green from left to right with a smooth gradient. With blue/yellow it is a radial gradient from the top right corner. But I can't explain the in between colour... A very interesting experiment, thanks for posting!

And if I stare longer still *eyes melt*

fdsbafhldsbka

Will

[billhume]

OK Will, I'll ask. What's   fdsbafhldsbka ?
Bill H.

[montymintypie]

That's how I type when my eyes have been melted.

[andycole]

Yeah, I see a dirty orangey-green on the top one and a light lime-green on the bottom one.  What's strange is that if I lose concentration, the top one will fade black to red (right eye) but the bottom one will fade back to blue (left eye).  What does that say about my eye dominance?!

Andy.

[3dphoto]

This topic was linked to in several external threads- I noticed a large number of guests, and they were all viewing this page.  To those from outside:

Color combinations work differently when mixing paints (pigments) vs. light.  While red+green pigment = brown, red+green light = yellow.  The eye cannot detect reddish-green as it sees the combination as yellow.  However, if your eyes are somewhat normal (i.e., you don't have a so-called lazy eye or a severely dominant eye), you can detect briefly a reddish-green color, which appears somewhat dirty.  Blue+yellow = green *only* with paint, not light.  Blue+yellow = white in light.

Our perception of color is limited by basically 3 color receptors, and work in an unusual way.  I suggest clicking on the Wikipedia link, or reading the Feb 2010 issue of Scientific American for a better explanation of the process.  And, for the record, not everyone will see this.

This is a 3D forum, so you can either cross your eyes or relax them to overlap the boxes, so that one eye is seeing one box, while the other sees the other one.  Then sit there for a moment and see if you detect the in-between color.

Jeff

[kenno]

  I cheated and used my stereoscopic  viwer- red & green merge  to give a balanced mix---very dificult to get blue-yellow   to merge-------have to go--Popes   on the phone to me. ----------------Almost   12,000 views--and only 8 comments--really.