&gt; It&#x27;s weird in that it&#x27;s almost that if you stand farther away you can see the room better<p>That&#x27;s because lower spatial frequencies from the source image are preserved much more completely than higher frequencies. When you blur your eyes or stand further away, you are filtering out the higher frequencies in the image you see. Since the noise is disproportionately at higher frequencies, reducing higher frequencies increases the SNR so you&#x27;re able to make out more.<p>This illusion demonstrates the effect much more starkly: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;R4WI769.jpg" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;R4WI769.jpg</a>