Diamonds in the Sky: Pareidolic Animals in Clouds

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Horovicz, Miriam, Hel-Or, Yacov, Moses, Yael
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Horovicz, Miriam
Hel-Or, Yacov
Moses, Yael
author_facet Horovicz, Miriam
Hel-Or, Yacov
Moses, Yael
contents People often see animal shapes in clouds, a phenomenon known as pareidolia. We propose an AI-based method that aims to predict which animals people are likely to perceive in clouds, even though state-of-the-art recognition methods typically fail to detect such animals. Additionally, we introduce a method to assist individuals in perceiving specific pareidolic animals, even if they did not recognize them initially. Our approach uses a diffusion model to transform cloud segments into an animal shape that visually resemble the original cloud. This diffusion technique is inspired by the observation that the diffusion process succeeds only when the target animal resembles the shape of the cloud, and that subtle visual hints often suffice to help individuals recognize specific pareidolic animals. A generated image, successfully derived from the diffusion model, is then used to predict the pareidolic animal. Additionally, a short morphing video transitioning from the generated image back to the original cloud segment is employed to further enhance the human's perception of the pareidolic animals.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2606_01361
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Diamonds in the Sky: Pareidolic Animals in Clouds
Horovicz, Miriam
Hel-Or, Yacov
Moses, Yael
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
People often see animal shapes in clouds, a phenomenon known as pareidolia. We propose an AI-based method that aims to predict which animals people are likely to perceive in clouds, even though state-of-the-art recognition methods typically fail to detect such animals. Additionally, we introduce a method to assist individuals in perceiving specific pareidolic animals, even if they did not recognize them initially. Our approach uses a diffusion model to transform cloud segments into an animal shape that visually resemble the original cloud. This diffusion technique is inspired by the observation that the diffusion process succeeds only when the target animal resembles the shape of the cloud, and that subtle visual hints often suffice to help individuals recognize specific pareidolic animals. A generated image, successfully derived from the diffusion model, is then used to predict the pareidolic animal. Additionally, a short morphing video transitioning from the generated image back to the original cloud segment is employed to further enhance the human's perception of the pareidolic animals.
title Diamonds in the Sky: Pareidolic Animals in Clouds
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.01361