By Vurdlak on December 7, 2006, with 36 Comments
Meraj, “Gamer and Illusioner” sent me three new illusions this morning. First one I’m posting is called “Reversed Face Illusion”, and can be seen below this text. It’s really similar to Margaret Thatcher illusion I posted in the past, that appeared on Boing-Boing and had success on other popular websites. If you look at the image below, you won’t see anything strange. Now rotate it 180 degrees, and you will see really strange effect! Remember Abraham Lincoln Borg? Hehe… Same effect we have already seen with Mona Lisa Illusion. Our brain perceives eyes, mouth and nose as main characteristics of human face, and automatically makes an image of the person inside our head. I believe those people who are “face blind” (people who can’t recognize faces!) don’t have trouble seeing this as an illusion. Anyone knows how are this people called? It’s like daltonists are color blind and can’t recognize colors (look at this test). If you liked this illusion, be sure to check original and famous, Scheibe Illusion.
(15 votes)
I always find those slightly eerie when you turn them upside-down.
I saw a picture similar to this one in a friend of mine’s psychology book (it was the picture of a girl but it worked the same way) and I still have the creeps when I think about it :S This kid looks creepy as well!
…nice…I agree with “Yes”
WOW THIS WAS SOO WEIRD I AM SO NOT UNDERSTANDING HOW IT WORKS LOL WOW!
i dont get it. what is the illusion??
isnt he like happy on 1 side and sad on the other??
they took the eyes and mouth from the left pic, rotated his head 180 degrees then replaced the eyes and mouth?
Its cool to DIY these…
yeah i dont get it either
What’s the illusion? It’s just a photoshop job- the eyes and mouth are still in the same orientation while the head has been rotated 180 degrees. What’s supposed to be creepy about this?
Take a closer look at the upside down kid head.
The mouth and eyes are not upside down.
Just because something’s where you expect it doesn’t mean you can take it for granted.
You, don’t get it? Oh dear, this is simple observation. Note that as the other writers have said you simply rotate the face, but not the eyes and mouth. Your brain gets mixed up and registers the upside down photo as being ok, but if you were to rotate the whole photo it would out of place.
Geez, people these days are too lazy and need everything explained to them.
The people who cannot recognize faces have a disorder called prosopagnosia. It is not the best disorder to have either, as one could guess.
The “reversed” version you link to hasn’t been turned over yet. I had to save it to my computer and tip it over myself ;)
The technical name for ‘face blindness’ is prosopagnosia.
If I get it right, clicking the image leads you to the same picture. You should at it 180° reversed. So turn your head! :)
Look at the image on the right (the upside down face). His lips and eyes are NOT upside down. That’s why it looks creepy when you turn it upside down, because his eyes and mouth don’t shape the way you think they should.
To make this they just took the image of the boy on the left and flipped it 180 degrees. Then they copied the mouth and eyes from the boy on the left, and pasted them onto the boy on the right. That’s the illusion.
The eyes and mouth are exactly the same in both pictures, the mouth is in a different spot on the right pic but it is still the same way round as the pic on the left. So even though the pic on the right is upside down the mouth and eyes are not.
That’s cool, I used to love looking at those pictures when i was little! Still amuses me.
Face blindness is called prosopagnosia. It’s an amazing affliction. I can’t even imagine what life with face blindness would be like.
I think that is so creepy. When you turn your head, it looks so scary I jumped out of my seat! NICE WORK!
thats funnier than hellen keller tryin to drive
This kind of “rotate the picture” illusion is very hard to view on an iPod touch or iPhone.
i agree with yes. they’re so creepy, but so cool.
the mouth on the upside down one is photo shopped so the mouth looks the same in bth pics!
up side down and ROTFLOL
i dont get it
If you have a laptop, flip you computer over, you will see the difference in an instance, very creepy, and not what you expect.
Hello, fellow lab-rats! Again, I found yhis immediatley. But here is a known tip I use: Cover up the first boy so it does not bother you. If you don’t, your eyes will still see it, and your mind will remember that picture of the boy so you will still think the boy is in the picture next to it! Though it is, may I say you pretend it isn’t!
Oh, and again, if you cover the first boy’s face, the next one kinda looks like an egg with a face and a beard!
That’s amazing.
It made me laugh. :3
so many people don’t get these. they’re soooo easy! copy and paste the picture into a word formatting program, and turn it upside down. then look at the “now right way up” face. his mouth is upside down!
i always find those very funny !!……..xx <3 :)
I remember this picture! I have the book! The Big Book Of Optical Illusions.
Awesome, creepy, i love it.
His mouth is upside down