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Hidden behind the Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile could be a trick of the light, according to new research on so-called visual noise. The equivalent of snow on a TV screen, visual noise is a major but poorly understood part of the daily input into our minds. The noise can have many sources, ..."
Hidden behind the Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile could be a trick of the light, according to new research on so-called visual noise. The equivalent of snow on a TV screen, visual noise is a major but poorly understood part of the daily input into our minds. The noise can have many sources, including changes in the number of light particles hitting cells in the eye, which can alter people's perception of facial expression, Chistopher Tyler and Leonid Kontsevich at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute in San Francisco wrote in Visual Research. The researchers digitally manipulated an image of Leonardo's masterpiece, superimposingit with filters of random flecks.
"The portrait was chosen because it is the best known example of an expression at the ambiguity point between a happy and a sad dimension," wrote the researchers. In the experiment, they asked 12 volunteers to look at the image of Mon Lisa modified with a greyish filter of random visual noise and rate her expression on a four-point scale: sad, slightly sad, slightly happy and happy. "Surprising findings were that added noise had profound effect on the facial expression, which seemed to have a meaningful interpretation in almost every instance," said the researchers. Noise that lifted the edges of the mouth resulted in a perception of Mona Lisa happier, while noise that flattened herlips made her look sadder. Volunteers also perceived Mona Lisa's eyes smiling. '"That perception was solely attributable to a configurational effect projecting from the mouth region," Tyler and Kontsevich said. They added that the way in which the brain interprets visual noise would mean that when looking too long and too hard at Mona Lisa, people believe her expression is subtly changing. Lisa di Antonio Maria Gherardini, the Mona Lisa, has been fascinating art lovers since her portrait was completed in 1506. Attempts to solve the enigma around a smile, described by the 16th century artist and writer Giorgio Vasari as "more divine than human," have included theories that the noblewoman was happily pregnant,....
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Hidden behind the Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile could be a trick of the light, according to new research on so-called visual noise. The equivalent of snow on a TV screen, visual noise is a major but poorly understood part of the daily input into our minds. The noise can have many sources, including changes in the number of light particles hitting cells in the eye, which can alter people's perception of facial expression, Chistopher Tyler and Leonid Kontsevich at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute in San Francisco wrote in Visual Research. The researchers digitally manipulated an image of Leonardo's masterpiece, superimposingit with filters of random flecks. 
Legendary 'Unicorns' Have Individual Voices
666: What's in a number?
The mystical seven
Mona Lisas eyes reveal code
The Socorro UFO hoax - part two
Poll shows 75% of Americans believe in paranormal
Man More Than Myth
Exploring the Nature of the Unnatural
Millions paralyzed by Friday 13th phobia
