At least once a day, I misplace my cell phone, my keys, my sunglasses… And from what I can tell, I’m hardly the only one who sets something down and then loses it instantly.
In fact, it’s pretty common for objects to camouflage themselves in plain sight, from everyday occurrences like your black leather wallet vanishing into your black leather couch, to more extraordinary disappearing acts, like this incredible leopard hiding effortlessly in the natural landscape.
Of course, it’s one thing to spend 20 minutes hunting down your house keys, and another entirely to watch the mystery of an everyday object disappearing completely into its surroundings.
One viral optical illusion circulating on the internet these days demonstrates a truly uncanny disappearing act, as an ordinary smartphone melts perfectly into the resolutely ordinary backdrop of a plain old living room floor.
Check out the picture that started it all below, and let us know if you were able to find the phone on the first try!
The image first started gaining steam on Facebook, where baffled people all over the world struggled to locate the phone buried somewhere in the shot.
Here at LittleThings, we had to put our heads together, and solve the problem with a combination of intense scrutiny and teamwork.
In the end, it took the expert eye of our managing editor to track down the hidden smartphone!
In order to hunt down the phone, we broke the image into four quadrants.
We scrolled through each section of the picture methodically, looking for the hidden device.
Still, it wasn't enough, and we didn't have a clue. We didn't even know whether we should focus on the carpet or the table.
Numbering our quadrants, things got pretty technical as we moved counterclockwise through the picture.
Personally, I was convinced that the phone was concealed somewhere under the legs of the table, and kept returning to that same area to search.
Have you figured out which quadrant the phone is in?
We'll give you a hint: It's in quadrant one.
Even so, it's still remarkably well camouflaged and hard to detect.
It's honestly uncanny that anything would blend so well into manmade surroundings.
To see the solution, click to reveal below.
Click the picture to see the answer revealed. It's circled in pink!
As you can see, the phone is hidden against the pattern of the carpet.
The blue-and-cream floral pattern of the carpet provided the perfect backdrop for the device to hide.
If you're still having trouble spotting where the carpet ends and the phone begins, here it is outlined in pink.
The rectangular shape of the phone is almost undetectable until it's pointed out.
That's because the blue-and-cream pattern of the phone case is extremely similar in tone and pattern to the surrounding stripe of carpet.
In fact, it wasn't until our managing editor pointed out the errant device that we were able to see where it was hiding.
The giveaway details are the small oval shape where the case cuts away to expose the phone's camera, and the pattern.
Upon closer inspection, the phone is a slightly different pattern from the carpet and a bit wider than the stripe it's on.
How quickly did you solve this puzzle? Let us know in the comments below, and don't forget to SHARE with friends and family to see if they can solve it!
