I notice the inverted colors of afterimages all the time, but I never realized they stayed so detailed for so long! I've always been surprised by the detail I do see, in fact, since it seems like the eye jumps around so much it shouldn't ever have a chance to burn in such a sharp image.
Notice that you can move your focus away from the dot and back to it, and the the color comes right back.
I think the afterimage colors don't have to be all that detailed for this effect to work, since your brain is going to fill in a lot of detail once it's got the luminance information in the second image, and if you're staring at the dot, much of it is away from your fovea anyway.
I find that the effect is considerably muted if I look away and back again, but I can do it a couple of times before it goes away entirely.
The thing I'm most proud of about my old page on Haidinger's brush (http://world.std.com/~mmcirvin/haidinger.html) is that I used an afterimage effect to accurately simulate its appearance for the unfamiliar reader. If you're using an LCD monitor, you can see that afterimage and then look for something that looks just like it on the same screen.
Interesting. I tried this out on the LCD Apple Studio Display on my computer and was able to see the effect. As another data point, it's polarization is also diagonal.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-06-16 04:55 am (UTC)Dav2.718
Whoa.
Date: 2006-06-16 11:59 am (UTC)Notice that you can move your focus away from the dot and back to it, and the the color comes right back.
Re: Whoa.
Date: 2006-06-16 12:58 pm (UTC)I find that the effect is considerably muted if I look away and back again, but I can do it a couple of times before it goes away entirely.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-16 01:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-16 01:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-16 05:45 pm (UTC)