You’re in the top 1% if you can spot the hidden celebrity in this optical illusion — and there’s a helpful clue

CAN you spot the familiar face in this black and white grid?

It’s hard to see, but a celebrity’s portrait is hidden between the dots that make up the brain-bending optical illusion.

3

SCROLL DOWN FOR ANSWER

There are a few tricks to help you see the hidden star – from shaking the device it’s showing on to standing at an angle.

Staring at the grid while moving away from your phone or PC seems to be most effective.

The further away you go, the more obvious the famous face should become.

If you are still at a loss, Here’s a hint: You are a late musician considered by many to be one of the greatest pop stars of all time.

That answers, of course, is Michael Jackson. Try looking back at the picture, now you know the solution: it should seem lighter.

It’s a new take on the famous magic eye illusions, which used swirls of dots or lines to hide a 3D image.

Speaking to The Sun, Dr. Gustav Kuhn, a psychologist and human cognition expert at Goldsmiths University in London, that the visual puzzle is the result of the way our brain processes information.

He compared it to a similar monochrome grid illusion obscuring an image of a panda.

“Our eyes encode vast amounts of messy sensory information, and our brain uses clever tricks to decode that information to try to make sense of what we’re seeing,” said Dr. Kuhn.

“What you’re seeing are the results of huge amounts of neural computation mixed with a little bit of guesswork.

“For example, if you stare at a bunch of trees, you can interpret that as a forest or a tree.

“What you see depends on what aspect of the scene you’re focusing on.

“In the panda illusion, information is encoded at different scales, and depending on which scale you focus on (i.e. the trees or the forest) you either see a few lines or the big picture – the panda.”

Professor Fiona Macpherson, expert at the University of Glasgow illusion indexexplained why further distance from the image makes the hidden sign clearer.

3

She told The Sun: “The panda image has a certain spatial frequency when it’s at a certain distance from you.

“The closer the image is to you, the lower the spatial frequency, and the further away it is, the higher the spatial frequency.

“In short, the farther the image is from you, the more black and white lines fall on the light-sensitive part of the back of your eye.”

In 2017, a similar riddle was shared online by Akiyoshi Kitaoka, a psychology professor at Ritsumeikan University in Japan.

His version featured his own face and was dubbed the “masking phenomenon” by the scientist.

The prolific illusionist added, “High-frequency components interfere with the perception of low-contrast objects.”

The visual trick has even made its way into pop culture.

It was featured on the cover of the 2005 Soulwax album NY Excuse, which at first glance looks like a monochrome grid.

3

However, upon closer inspection, the artist and album name are buried in the top right corner.

In 2009, psychedelic rock band Black Lips released their album 200 Million Thousand with a cover similar to Soulwax’s.

But instead of album title and artist, a face was hidden between the lines.

Optical illusions are often just a bit of fun, but they also have real value for scientists.

The brain puzzles help researchers shed light on the inner workings of the mind and how it reacts to its environment.

dr Kuhn added that illusions are important to our understanding of the brain.

“We usually take perception for granted and rarely think about the hard work that underpins everyday tasks, like seeing a cup of coffee in front of you,” he told The Sun.

“Visual illusions highlight perceptual errors and provide important insights into the hidden neural processes that allow us to see the world around us.”

It follows the release earlier this month of a spooky illusion that makes viewers feel like they’re falling into a black hole.

ANSWERS TO ILLUSIONS: Michael Jackson; Panda; John Lennon

• Get the latest science news
• Stay up to date with the top stories about space and astronomy
• All archeology news from dinosaurs to ancient artifacts

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science Team? Email us at tech@the-sun.co.uk