03/03/2015

What color is this dress?

Dress color controversy goes viral

From this day on, the world will be divided into two people. Blue & black, or white & gold

Everywhere you look, people seem to be debating an all-important question that has taken over Twitter and the Internet: What color is this dress?

Some see white and gold. Others see blue and black. There's no middle ground.

read more

Blue and black or white and gold, whatever colour dress you see says a lot about you

It's all about the way your brain is programmed to understand light and whether you're a night or day person. Whether you saw the above dress as blue and black, or white and gold, someone has almost certainly told you that you’re wrong. But you’re not, and neither are they it’s both colours, depending on who and where you are.

Which colour your eyes see is in fact a consequence of the way our eyes have evolved, and tells you important things about how your eyes work out colour in a world lit by sunlight.

The problem is that the brain has to avoid seeing the colour of the light reflecting off an object, and just see the colour of the object itself. If it sees a white shirt bathed in yellow sun, for instance, it needs to subtract the yellowness of the sun so that it can see the whiteness of the shirt – and it normally does.

read more

The Mystery Of The Colour Changing Dress Has Been Solved!

It's the dress that has LITERALLY divided the world - some see it as black and blue, while others swear it's white and gold. Everyone from Kanye to Ariana are SUPER confused!

Who'd have thought one dress could be so divisive? The internet basically imploded when the question of what colour this frock was caused mass uproar - some people swear they see it as blue and black, while others see white and gold. (The general consensus in the Capital office is white and gold, FYI).

Check out the video above for the science behind 2015's BIGGEST talking point so far, and vote in our poll to let us know what colour you're seeing.

read more

The 'What Color Is This Dress?' Debate Explained
The dress is apparently this Roman Originals dress (above), which settles the debate about what it is in real life, although not why the picture is fooling us

A rift is tearing the Internet apart. And it's the question of what color this dress is. Society has been split into the white/golds and the blue/blacks. Thankfully some people have stepped up to explain, scientifically, what color this goddamn dress is.

If you've somehow missed it, it started on tumblr when Swiked posted this dress and the question "guys please help me - is this dress white and gold, or blue and black? Me and my friends can't agree and we are freaking the f*** out":

For the record, I see white and gold in shadow. But others, including other members of the io9 staff, insist they see blue and black. And some people have seen it switch before their eyes, causing no end of consternation.

read more

Debate rages over color of dress photographed in rare light
The two-tone dress, left, alongside an ivory and black version, made by Roman Originals

t's the dress that's beating the Internet black and blue. Or should that be gold and white?

Friends and co-workers worldwide are debating the true hues of a royal blue dress with black lace that, to many an eye, transforms in one photograph into gold and white. Experts are calling the photo a one-in-a-million shot that perfectly captures how people's brains perceive color and process contrast in dramatically different ways.

"This photo provides the best test I've ever seen for how the process of color correction works in the brain,'" said Daniel Hardiman-McCartney, the clinical adviser to Britain's College of Optometrists. "I've never seen a photo like before where so many people look at the same photo and see two sets of such dramatically different colors."

related: Why #TheDress caused a worldwide existential crisis

read more