Abstract
The image of #theShoe is a derivative image of #theDress which induces vastly different color experiences across individuals. The majority of people perceive that the shoe has grey leather with turquoise laces, but others report pink leather with white laces. We hypothesized #theShoe presents a problem of color constancy, where different people estimate different illuminants falling onto the shoe. The present study specifically aimed to understand what cues in the shoe image caused the ambiguity based on the optimal color hypothesis: our visual system knows the gamut of surface colors under various illuminants and applies the knowledge for illuminant estimation. The analysis showed that estimated illuminant chromaticity largely changes according to the assumed intensity of the illuminant. When the illuminant intensity was assumed to be low, a high color temperature was estimated. In contrast, assuming high illuminant intensity led to the estimation of low color temperature. A simulation based on a von Kries correction showed that the subtraction of estimated illuminants from the original image shifts the appearance of the shoe towards the reported states (i.e. gray-turquoise or pink-white). These results suggest that the optimal color hypothesis provides a theoretical interpretation to #theShoe phenomenon. Moreover, this luminance-dependent color-shift was observed in #theDress phenomenon, supporting the notion that the same trigger induces #theShoe.
Highlights
In February 2015 a photograph of a dress became a viral internet phenomenon; the population was divided on whether they saw the image of a dress as blue and black, or as white and gold
The global minimum weighted root-mean-squared-error (WRMSE) value across all candidate illu minants was found at color temperature 4500 K and luminance level 1.25
Overall we found that depending on the luminance level of illuminants we are searching through WRMSE values converged to different color temperatures
Summary
In February 2015 a photograph of a dress became a viral internet phenomenon; the population was divided on whether they saw the image of a dress as blue and black, or as white and gold. Panels (c) and (d) show that the color variation of real ob jects seems to be rich enough to fill the large portion of optimal colour distributions This suggests that our visual system might have access to physical upper boundary through seeing colors in a daily life, and it may be possible for us to internalize the shape of optimal color distribution under typical illuminants (e.g. blue-yellow direction). If the optimal color hypothesis is adopted by human observers the model might be able to guide us to understand why the shoe image can be interpreted by being illuminated by different illuminants Such an attempt revealed that estimated color temperature of illuminants largely shifted as a function of estimated illuminant intensity. Our model accounted for #theShoe phenomenon in a similar way that it explained #theDress phenomenon
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