Details

According to Ings, flicker colors were discovered in 1826 by Benedict Prevost, a French monk. The effect was popularized by toymaker C. E. Benham, who sold small wooden tops with black and white patterns on a surface that mysteriously appeared colored when spun. Early scientific work on flicker colors was carried out by Fechner in the late nineteenth century. More recently, researchers have attempted to explain the appearance of the colors as due to the different rates at which color receptors of the eye respond to motion [2].

References

[1] S. Ings, A Natural History of Seeing, New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 2008.

[2] J. Schramme, "Changes in Pattern Induced Flicker Colors Are Mediated by the Blue-Yellow Opponent Process," Vision Research, 32(11), 1992 pp. 2129–2134. doi:10.1016/0042-6989(92)90074-S.