Apple has explained a bizarre image that circulated online that appeared to show a "glitch in the matrix" as a woman tried on her wedding dress.
In case you missed it, writer and comedian Tessa Coates recently shared a wedding dress photo that has sparked internet bewilderment and left many scratching their heads.
Tessa took to Instagram to reveal the perplexing photo, capturing a moment in a bridal shop that defies reality.
While trying on her wedding dress, Tessa found herself standing between two mirrors, creating an astonishing visual effect.
In the photograph, Tessa's hands appear in three different positions simultaneously between the mirrors and her actual location, creating a baffling optical illusion. In her caption, she clarified: "This is a real photo, not photoshopped, not a panorama, not a Live Photo. If you can't see the problem, please keep looking, and then you won't be able to unsee it."
Tessa described her experience as a "glitch in the Matrix" and admitted that it nearly made her feel physically ill and wanting to vomit in the street.
The image's surreal nature left many social media users divided between congratulating her on her engagement and jokingly advising her to flee.
"This is so weird I can’t stop zooming in trying to find a glitch," one person commented.
Another asked: "3 different dimensions?! What is going on?!???"
As the viral image continued to baffle the internet, Tessa provided a follow-up on her Instagram Stories to unravel the mystery.
The comedian explained that she had visited the bridal shop solo, sharing some photos with her sister, who noticed the uncanny difference between the three versions of Tessa. The eerie picture left the comedian in shock, and she even fell to her hands and knees in horror.
Intrigued by this peculiar phenomenon, Tessa sought answers from an Apple employee at her local Apple Store, but this just added to the stress.
"As I'm waiting on the ground floor, I show the guys in the blue shirts (who aren't the Geniuses), I show them the picture and I really thought the moment I showed any of the people in the shop, they'd be like, 'Ah yeah, weird but I know what this is.' Instead they lost their minds," she recalled on her Instagram story.
After a queue of 20 people eagerly crowded around to see the photo, an employee called Roger came to the rescue.
Tessa revealed it all in her Instagram story. Credit: Tessa Coates/Instagram Stories
"[I] finally get upstairs to the Geniuses and it takes three Geniuses, and each Genius is more scared than the last," Tessa went on. "Finally Roger is found, and Roger comes up from the basement and he's obviously the Grand High Wizard.
"He looked at it and he's like: 'Okay... I've never seen it this bad or this scary, but what happens is an iPhone is not a camera - it is a computer. So, when an iPhone takes a photo, it takes a series of burst images very quickly even though it's not a live photo, it's not a pano, it's not a burst.'"
Further describing what Roger said, she went on: "'It takes a series of images from left to right, and what it's done, in the exact moment that it crossed behind your back, you raised your arms in that half a split second.
"Then it's created a completely different image on the other side. It's made an AI decision to stitch those two photos together.'"
He also described it as a "one in a million chance".
Everyone can calm down now because Roger has come to the rescue.
