Black Rainbow
Black Rainbow is about investigating the potential of black stripes to produce colors just by getting moved on a white surface due to an optical illusion called fechner effect.
Fechner effect
The Fechner color effect is an illusion of color seen when looking at certain rapidly changing or moving black-and-white patterns. They are also called pattern induced flicker colors (PIFCs).
The perceptual mechanism of Fechner color is not entirely understood. One possible reason people see colors may be that the color receptors in the human eye respond at different rates to red, green, and blue. Or, more specifically, that the latencies of the center and the surrounding mechanisms differ for the different types of color specific ganglion cells.
The Importance of Creating a Prototype with adjustable Tops
One of the limitations of the Fechner effect is that it can only be perceived through the human eye and by the observer—it cannot be photographed. Additionally, in recorded videos of this phenomenon, the colors appear differently than how the human eye perceives them. Therefore, there was a critical need for a physical prototype to further research this phenomenon.
Hardware Design
To test this phenomenon, a quick prototype was created using Arduino and cardboards.
Adding a dimmer provides the ability to change the motor speed and examine the rotating disc at different speeds.
Reasons and Explanations
The arrangement of colors produced in this phenomenon is exactly like the arrangement of colors in the spectrum of electromagnetic waves. It appears that the bands, the closer they are to the center of the circle, tend more towards blue and violet colors. As they move farther away, they become more similar to colors with lower frequencies, such as red.
