full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Beau Lotto: Optical illusions show how we see

Unscramble the Blue Letters

This is a huge problem, because it means that the same image could have an iitifnne number of possible real-world sources. Let me show you what I mean. Imagine that this is the back of your eye, okay? And these are two projections from the world. They're identical in every single way. Identical in shape, size, specatrl content. They are the same, as far as your eye is cneconred. And yet they come from completely different sources. The one on the right comes from a yoellw surface, in shadow, oriented fiancg the left, viewed through a pinkish medium. The one on the left comes from an orange surface, under direct light, facing to the right, vieewd through sort of a bluish mudeim. cpemtlloey different meanings, giving rise to the exact same retinal information. And yet it's only the retinal information that we get.

Open Cloze

This is a huge problem, because it means that the same image could have an ________ number of possible real-world sources. Let me show you what I mean. Imagine that this is the back of your eye, okay? And these are two projections from the world. They're identical in every single way. Identical in shape, size, ________ content. They are the same, as far as your eye is _________. And yet they come from completely different sources. The one on the right comes from a ______ surface, in shadow, oriented ______ the left, viewed through a pinkish medium. The one on the left comes from an orange surface, under direct light, facing to the right, ______ through sort of a bluish ______. __________ different meanings, giving rise to the exact same retinal information. And yet it's only the retinal information that we get.

Solution

  1. completely
  2. yellow
  3. spectral
  4. viewed
  5. facing
  6. concerned
  7. medium
  8. infinite

Original Text

This is a huge problem, because it means that the same image could have an infinite number of possible real-world sources. Let me show you what I mean. Imagine that this is the back of your eye, okay? And these are two projections from the world. They're identical in every single way. Identical in shape, size, spectral content. They are the same, as far as your eye is concerned. And yet they come from completely different sources. The one on the right comes from a yellow surface, in shadow, oriented facing the left, viewed through a pinkish medium. The one on the left comes from an orange surface, under direct light, facing to the right, viewed through sort of a bluish medium. Completely different meanings, giving rise to the exact same retinal information. And yet it's only the retinal information that we get.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
light surround 3
blue flowers 3
retinal information 2
brain evolved 2
desert scenes 2
visual field 2
green light 2
dark surrounds 2
gray tiles 2
light coming 2

Important Words

  1. bluish
  2. completely
  3. concerned
  4. content
  5. direct
  6. exact
  7. eye
  8. facing
  9. giving
  10. huge
  11. identical
  12. image
  13. imagine
  14. infinite
  15. information
  16. left
  17. light
  18. meanings
  19. means
  20. medium
  21. number
  22. orange
  23. oriented
  24. pinkish
  25. problem
  26. projections
  27. retinal
  28. rise
  29. shadow
  30. shape
  31. show
  32. single
  33. size
  34. sort
  35. sources
  36. spectral
  37. surface
  38. viewed
  39. world
  40. yellow