Black and white or color: new viral optical illusion baffles the Internet

Digital artist and developer Oyvind Kolas has created a visual illusion that makes you see colors in a black and white image. This was achieved using color assimilation.

This illusion is achieved by overlaying a black and white image with an oversaturated color grid. When we look at this image, our mind interprets the original image together with the raster of dots and transfers the colors to the gray areas of the image.

Although our eyes can distinguish between an enormous range of colors, our minds are always working to simplify their work, so the images we process are simplified to reduce mental strain. By deliberately concentrating on the image, you will start to notice the added dots, however they remain undetectable upon first glance.

Many images created using color assimilation have become viral online. This method was also used to ‘color’ an entire video, which you can check out below.