The Neon Fruit Illusion: A Fresh Recipe for Colour Science Demonstrations

Abstract

At this year’s European Conference on Visual Perception, we debuted a novel colour science demonstration—and visual illusion—for the Un mare di illusioni exhibition. Under carefully curated lighting conditions, cycling through different illuminant spectra, certain fruits and vegetables appear to glow and dim in an unchanging environment. Encouraged by the positive reactions it received, and the numerous and specific questions from conference delegates, we here describe what this illusion is, why we believe it may work, and how this particular low-cost setup may be assembled and demonstrated for the amazement of your friends, students, and members of the public.