[visionlist] geometrically ambiguous images

[Benjamin Backus]

A cube with the corner removed is triply ambiguous.  I imagine that two 
of these objects next to each other would be nine-fold ambiguous, and so 
on. 

Here is a demo:
http://members.lycos.nl/amazingart/E/3.html#598

I don't think it's possible to see both the large and small cubes as 
concave simultaneously, on account of disagreement between their shared 
edges.  That's not a problem for simultaneously convex, because in that 
case the smaller cube can be seen as occluding the larger one and 
doesn't have to share edges with it.

Here's a possibly relevant paper on cue recruitment, which can cause 
bistable stimuli to stop being perceptually bistable after a 
disambiguating cue is learned by the system:
http://www.psych.upenn.edu/backuslab/research/HaijiangBackus_CueRecruit_PNAS2006.pdf

Ben Backus
Psychology Dept.
University of Pennsylvania

B.T. Irvine wrote:

> I wonder if you may be able to help me with a brief query. I am a PhD
> student in the History and Philosophy of Science Department at Cambridge
> University. I have recently become interested in the Necker Cube as it
> provides an interesting analogy for certain cases in philosophy. I am
> trying to find out two things with respect to the Necker Cube:
>
> (1) are there any geometrical images which are TRIPLY ambiguous in the 
> way
> that the Necker Cube is doubly ambiguous, where the transitions between
> ambiguities are obvious, regular, and spontaneous (i.e. not dependent 
> upon
> "effort")?
>
> (2) is there a name (or names) for the CLASS of geometrically ambiguous
> images which includes Necker Cubes as well as some other nameless
> geometrically ambiguous forms I have encountered in the past? If there is
> such a term for this class, I would be interested in finding it out as I
> may be able to mutate it into a philosophical "-ism" which would express
> the sort of position I am developing in my thesis.
>
> Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope you might be able to 
> help!
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