Einstein or Monroe? Have They Checked your Eyes Yet?

After the dress, a blurred image of Albert Einstein superimposed over that of Marilyn Monroe has gone viral to become the optician's chart.

The image was reportedly created by neuro-scientists at MIT years ago but went viral after a video depicting it, was recently posted by ASAP Science. The video shows the image which looks like Monroe's picture from a distance but is actually a picture of Einstein when viewed from a closer distance.

The picture was designed to point out identify defective vision. If a viewer sees Monroe when others see Einstein from a specific distance, the viewer's vision is defective warranting a visit to the ophthalmologist. Most bespectacled people reported seeing Monroe without glasses.

"Up close, we're generally able to pick up fine details like Einstein's moustache and wrinkles. But as the distance increases, or if your vision is poor, and creates a more blurred image in the first place, your ability to pick up details fades away. Instead you only see general features, like the shape of mouth, nose and hair, and are left seeing Marilyn Monroe," the video explains.

The image is a hybrid, created by superimposing high spatial frequency components of Einstein with low spatial frequency components of a Monroe image.