Two New Dynamic Effects: Light Explosion and Night Crash

Starting from an achromatic display used by Zavagno to study a glare and a ‘smoke’ effect, we show two new dynamic effects that we call (a) ‘light explosion’ and (b) ‘night crash’.

On a uniform white or black background four black or white rectangles (inducers, 1 deg × 5.7 deg) were arranged to form an orthogonal cross with a square gap in its centre. (a) When the luminance of black inducers on a white background is transformed into a smooth gray scale gradient with the lighter ends facing the square gap, a luminous mist with a glare effect is seen. When such a transformation is performed dynamically by changing the gradient from outside to inside (with the outside ends remaining black and the inside changing toward white), a sudden explosion of light is seen. (b) When the luminance of white inducers on a black background is transformed into a smooth gray scale gradient with their darker ends facing the square gap, a sort of dark ‘smoke’ is seen. If such a transformation is performed dynamically by changing the gradient from inside to outside (with the outside ends remaining white and the inside changing toward black), a sudden and instantaneous black diffusion (a sort of night crash) is seen.

Both the light explosion and the night crash effects have an exponential course followed by an immediate drop. Psychophysical data show that both effects depend on an interaction between the lightness of the background, the lightness of the square gap, and the transformation rate of the gray scale gradient.