Virtual Robots Fooled By Visual Illusions

Roland Piquepaille alerts us to research out of University College London in which virtual robots, trained to "see" as we do, were duped by optical illusions the same way humans are. Here's one of the illusions the software system fell for.

Colors sure look different...

[Gertlex]

... but I went ahead and verified with a pixel color id program (ColorPix) that they are the same color.

Now try this:

[Wilson_6500]

Cross your eyes, line up the two squares so they're offset by a few millimeters, and then hit the mask. What I saw was that the squares retained their seeming discoloration--until I uncrossed my eyes.

Can someone explain what this teaches us?

[__aailob1448]

I'm struggling to find the utility of the study. So, if we learned to see differently, we could see the world in a way different enough to not be fooled by certain optical illusions, and probably be fooled by others?

Assuming it is possible to change the way a human sees without breaking the brain. A popular theory on evolution is that we evolved our brains to better analyze visual data coming in. We're not deceived as easily by certain camouflages animals use. Stripes, dots, color, etc.

Confirms what we thought about the way we learn to see, perhaps? That'd make sense.

Re:Colors sure look different...

[nmb3000]

but I went ahead and verified with a pixel color id program (ColorPix) that they are the same color

Indeed they are, but for me at least, this illusion didn't seem as "abrupt" as others do when it's shown that the perception is false. One that always stands out to me is this one (many have probably seen it):

Without thinking too much, look at the colors of the A and B squares [imageshack.us] in this well-known image.
Now, here's an animation I just made showing the truth [imageshack.us]. That's a solid, unchanging color going from A to B.

I think this a much more drastic difference than the one in TFS, but of course YMMV :)