Some New Effects: Phenomenal Glare, Luminous ‘Mist’ and Dark ‘Smoke’

Abstract

The impression of glare is caused by a very intense light source. However, here I show that this impression can also be generated with normal light intensities. The strength of the effect depends on the number of elements used to produce it. The elements are 2 cm × 5 cm rectangles. A single horizontal achromatic rectangle is first used on a homogeneous white or black background. From left to right, the brightness of the rectangle varies smoothly from black to white. The left part of the rectangle appears to progressively bend toward the background when the background is black, while the rectangle appears straight and to fade into an apparent white mist near its right side when the background is white. When the background is black, two horizontal rectangles, mirror-shaded from black to white, so that their black ends face each other with a 2 cm gap between them, appear either to bend toward the background or to be straight and to fade into a sort of dark ‘smoke’. When the background is white with the left rectangle varying in brightness from black to white and the right one from white to black, the rectangles look straight with a sort of white glare appearing to come out from the gap. The black ‘smoke’ and the white glare look more compelling when there are four rectangles forming a cross with a central square gap. It can be argued that this and the neon spreading effect are unrelated. Instead, psychophysical experiments suggest that the glare and smoke effects depend on a relation between the grey scale gradient and the background brightness.