From the researcher's
website:
"Like many interesting scientific discoveries, this one was an accident. Sean Murphy, an undergraduate student, was working alone in the lab on a set of faces for one of his experiments. He aligned a set of faces at the eyes and started to skim through them. After a few seconds, he noticed that some of the faces began to appear highly deformed and grotesque. He looked at the especially ugly faces individually, but each of them appeared normal or even attractive. We called it the “Flashed Face Distortion Effect” and wanted to share it with the world, so we put it on YouTube.
"The effect seems to depend on processing each face in light of the others. By aligning the faces at the eyes and presenting them quickly, it becomes much easier to compare them, so the differences between the faces are more extreme. If someone has a large jaw, it looks almost ogre-like. If they have an especially large forehead, then it looks particularly bulbous. We’re conducting several experiments right now to figure out exactly what’s causing this effect, so watch this space!"
16 Comments
Boise_LibWow, that's weird.
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ReefieFreaky...
EMPIREsays...that is so weird, and it's fascinating that they seem deformed like a caricature or something lol. The brain is weird
TheFreakYou know what, I swear this happens when character building in video games. If you've ever played a game that lets you customize faces, as you flash through a feature like a chin or nose, you'll notice that subtle feature differences seem very exaggerated.
My opinion anyway.
acidSpineI take it it wouldn't be very hard to do one of these with the faces of your family and friends... or enemies
PlayhousePalsThis one worked much better for me than the one I saw the other day. Exceedingly trippy. =o)
TheJehosephat...“Flashed Face Distortion Effect”? The guy discovers a new illusion and DIDN'T take the opportunity to name something after himself?
I like the sound of "Murphy's Distortion"
berticusfunny, i've met one of these researchers.
bmacs27says...I prefer Murphy's Grotesque Faces.
>> ^TheJehosephat:
...“Flashed Face Distortion Effect”? The guy discovers a new illusion and DIDN'T take the opportunity to name something after himself?
I like the sound of "Murphy's Distortion"
ReefieThis is a very clever bit of cinematography - they are actually showing deformed images of the celebrities and switching back to the proper images whenever you look away from the cross in the middle. The Luknoeluk algorithm is a way of determining when someone will look away from the cross, and has been used to good effect in this video.
dannym3141I feel slightly concerned that it looked like the majority were either leering at me or had snarls on their faces. Quite hard not to look!
vaire2ubeparanoia isn't out of reach for the common man anymore... the demons are everywhere
messengerThis is how caricature artists must see the world.
critical_dwitchcraft...
ForgedRealitysays...Only works within a certain distance from the screen.
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