SS Connection

Matthew Luckiesh

The Hollow Face Illusion Was first recognized in 1916 By Mattew Lukiesh it was Mentioned in His Book Light and Shade and Applications.

Matthew Lukiesh was a physicist and he was the Director of General Electric Lighting Research Laboratory at its Nela Park National Lamps Works facility in East Cleveland Ohio he pursued research on light and vision. In his day, he was known as the "Father of the Science of Seeing. Luckiesh developed several theories on color and its physiological effect on people. He was also interested in determining the conditions under which optimal visibility was achieved, and in examining the relationship between light and seeing, in order to design better types of lamps. During World War I he studied camouflage, and later invented artificial sunlight and germicidal lamps. Luckiesh produced eleven U.S. patents, 28 books and about 860 scientific and technical articles, published between 1911 and 1960.

Matthew Lukiesh (14 Sept. 1883-2 Nov. 1967), renowned authority in the study of light and color application, was born in Maquoketa, Iowa, the son of John and Frances Root Luckiesh. He graduated from Purdue University with a B.S. in electrical engineering in 1909, an EE degree from Iowa State College in 1911, and an M.S. in 1912 from the State University of Iowa. He began work for the General Electric Lamp Division at Nela Park in 1910, becoming director of applied science in 1919 and director of the Research Laboratory in 1924, a position he held until his retirement in 1949. He was a pioneer in the study of the visible spectrum of light, developing the first accurate glass filters for the production of artificial daylight and meters for measuring it. His work demonstrated the need for higher levels of illumination and the benefits of using indirect lighting with separate specific lighting for a seeing task. He held numerous patents, including a no-glare device for vehicle headlights and an apparatus for measuring visual efficiency. He also made important contributions in the fields of camouflage and airplane visibility during both world wars.

Luckiesh married Frances Clark in Maquoketa in 1913. After her death in 1925, he married Helen C. Pitts in Cleveland in 1928 and they had two daughters, Nancy L. Tobin and Peggy Kundtz. A resident of Shaker Hieghts he died at his home and was buried at Calvary Cemetery

Mathew Luckiesh fist observed the holow face illusion in 1916 here is insight on the mask :A concave mask or mould of a human face that looks like a normal convex face when viewed from a distance of about 150 centimetres or more and seems to turn to follow the viewer's movements. The illusion arises from a top-down processing assumption made by the visual system that objects are likely to be globally convex. The illusion is weaker for inverted faces and for other objects such as potatoes, disappearing in both cases at about 350 centimetres distance, when bottom-up processing based on stereopsis overcomes the top-down global convexity assumption. Illumination from below enhances the illusion by duplicating the shadows that would be cast on a normal convex face lit from above (see chiaroscuro), but the effect is seen even without special lighting, suggesting that the global convexity assumption isstronger than the assumption of lighting from above.