Tuesday, November 30, 2021

A Funny Face

Have you seen this painting of Ada Lovelace, the Victorian lady who helped invent the computer? Her eyes are kind of close together, but you get the idea. The image was created by a computer.

Image courtesy Daniel Russell @danielrussruss

Now look at the image again. Do you see a dog with a white nose? Ada's eyes become the nostrils.

I found that once I saw the dog, I couldn't go back to Ada Lovelace again.

Most humans see the Victorian lady first. What does Google reverse image search think it is? Mostly it think's it's a dog, but there are some ladies mixed in, too. 

12 comments:

Melissa Dow said...

I saw a dog the moment the image loaded, before I had read any of the text. I can sort of see the victorian lady if I use my peripheral vision, but as soon as I look directly at the image again I see the dog and cannot unsee it.

Alex MacKenzie said...

Weird. I'm with Melissa. In fact, I can't see a Victorian lady at all, only a dog. But then, I like dogs a lot more than people, so perhaps that has an effect?

Steve Gilzow said...

Ditto Melissa’s comment.

David King said...

I only saw the dog from the beginning, and still only see a dog. No matter how hard I try I can't see a Victorian woman.

Keith Patton said...

Yeah, I only see a dog too. Hmm...

Tyler J said...

I can't see anything but the dog. I tried to cover the eyes of the dog to see the woman but no luck.

Tyler J said...

I can't see anything but the dog. I tried to cover the eyes of the dog to see the woman but no luck.

Susan said...

I saw the dragon from never ending story (with collie colourings) if I do that magic-eye squint I can see the lady but she looks more like a Disney version of a musketeer with a long black twiddly moe…

Raf said...

I couldn't see the lady at all until I squinted my eyes really hard and took a step back.
In fact had you not said that the eyes become the dog's nostrils I probably wouldn't have found her at all.
Now I can see both of the subjects at will, squinting to see "Ada" and opening my eyes to see the dog.
What I find disturbing is the fact that AI finds a person there at all. Saying that it's Ada Lovelace's *portrait* on top of that is a bit of a stretch :D . Who am I to say this isn't art or style or artistic licence? The deviation from human anatomy could be this computer's greatest gift to mankind (*sarcasm).
It's not quite on par with the common optical illusion dual images, especially the parts that are not the dog's or Ada's face.
Interesting as always, Mr Gurney.

JR said...

At first sight, while looking somewhat sideways, I saw 'the lady,' then, at Gurney's prompting, the dog, and then I can also see the lady again. To my mind, dogs do not normally have such mouths, while lady is pictured in a style that's dislikeable, but also definitely recognizable. ... from ~1970s cartoons.

Skadjer said...

How the first impression is presented likely plays a part. Since I'm browsing this by phone, the thumbnail was too small to make out at first. The title "A Funny Face" stood out to mislead assumptions.

Had to click-through to see the picture proper, and by then was expecting to see a silly caricature, and to learn why she had been painted that way.

I did not see the dog until reading your suggestion of it. Then it took over.

I can still persuade my mind to revert & see Ada, but it takes concentration. The dog is easier.

boocat said...

I never saw the lady, just a border collie with a cow-like snout. And a hat. I could not make myself see any human, no matter how I concentrated.

So I stood and tipped my head over until my eyes were almost upside down. It was shocking; I saw the caricature of a lady's face immediately!