Hybrid image

The hybrid image is an optical illusion developed by Aude Oliva and Antonio Torrealba.

This illusion has impressed many people, since, in the same, You can see a face that is cheerful or angry, Depending on the distance at which the spectator is placed.

It is worth noting that both Aude Oliva and Antonio Torrealba, are experts in the subject of visual perception.

Oliva works for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Torrealba works for the Philippe Schyns, at the University of Glasgow.

This popular image jumped to fame in 2006 when thousands of users disagreed if the faces were cheerful or angry.

Content

• The hybrid image
• The appearance of the two hybrid images
• The authors of the hybrid image
  • Bibliography

The hybrid image

Said hybrid image It is composed of two images that have gone through a special degraded process.

That is why, when we approach, we can see a cheerful face, but if we move away we see the same face with anger. What then is the true expression?

According to the viewer's distance, the image can be perceived differently and the answer to it is not so simple, since, Everything is due to the feeling that human beings possess and the way in which we process the information At the visual level.

Although the hybrid image is a simple, impressive and simple image, in reality, the mechanisms to find the explanation to this phenomenon are much more complex.

The appearance of the two hybrid images

The first of the images we observe has crossed a low frequency filter, Therefore the image that is perceived is blurred, as if it were a photo that has been taken with a bad approach.

In the case of the second image, this is manipulated with high frequency touch -ups, which makes your contours visible.

When both images overlap, The result is a hybrid image, in which we will perceive an expression or another depending on the distance in which we place ourselves.

By 2006, the year in which the hybrid image appeared, it was a revolution, but, with the passing of time, the hybrid images have multiplied.

Now, We can see hybrid images with Albert Einstein's face and Marilyn Monroe, or with that of Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher, among others.

In addition to politicians and other personalities, there are hybrid images that combine other objects, such as bicycles with motorcycles, or simply smiling faces and others with sadness.

The authors of the hybrid image

The authors of the hybrid image, as pointed out, have been several, but, the pioneer was the researcher Aude Oliva, attached to mit.

When Oliva created his hybrid image, perhaps he never imagined the impact he would have worldwide.

The original image was titled “Mr. Angry and Mrs. CALM ". Seeing the image in real size, Mr. Angry is on the left, while Mrs. Calmada is on the right.

But, magic occurs when we reduce the image with zoom, or if we take distance, then, the papers are invested; that is, they change position creating a true visual effect.

After this image, others have been created with faces in which the sizes and sequences are repeated You can appreciate how the calm face is changing to enraged.

It is worth noting that the hybrid image is static, she does not change, but, thanks to the photographic editing techniques, we can interpret them in different ways, depending on our distance, as well as the size or proportion.

Many suggest that this visual effect is due to image processing that occurs in our brain, thanks to the visual perceptual system and how our brain manages the changes.

Anyway, visual perception is what allows us to interpret the information in our environment, including the effects of light that reach our eye.

Additionally, Our visual perceptual system is always active, So the brain can work by recreating what it observes, and this is another possibility of why we see so many optical illusions that are incredible, and some of them find it hard to imagine them.

In this visual perception system, both the eyes and the brain work together, then, both are there, working so that we can understand everything that happens around us.

Know the most incredible optical illusions

Bibliography

• Català, j. M., & Doménech, J. M. C. (2005). The complex image: the phenomenology of images in the era of visual culture(Vol. 42). UNIV. Autònoma de Barcelona.
• Martí-Bonmatí, l., & Sopena, R. (2007). Receptors and markers: Towards the science of image through hybridations. Radiology, 49(5), 299-304.
• Olive, a., & Torralba, a. (2001). Modeling the Shape of the Scene: A Holistic Representation of the Spatial Avelope. International Journal of Computer Vision, 42(3), 145-175.
• Torralba, a., & Oliva. (2003). Statistics of Natural Image Categories. Network: Computation in Neural Systems, 14(3), 391-412.