First time viewers of this display invariably do not see the 16 circles segmented from the background. Rather, they see a series of rectangles that they frequently describe as “door panels”. The illusion pits segmentation cues against what appears to be a very strong prior to interpret the image as a series of 3-D structures “coffers” with closed boundaries. (A coffer is a decorative sunken panel.) It appears that the prior involves both closure and shape-from shading assumptions.Yikes, took me forever to find them.
Interesting. When I first looked at it without reading "how many circles do you see," I saw the rectangles. But as soon as I read "circles," they showed up. Also, at least for me, the circles to the right are more readily visible without adjusting my focus.
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