Comments on: Comments on 11608

Post number 11608

Shadowkeeper — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 12:29:37 -0800

I'm usually not a big fan of optical illusions (unless there's a nice magic trick built around it), but this one is pretty brain-burning. (Yes, that's my entire front-page post. But hey: at least it ain't a news story.)

By: moss

moss — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 12:36:40 -0800

Coolest. Optical illusion. Ever. Wow, that's... wow. I think if I stare at that long enough, I might actually manage to understand how perceiving something as moving is different from just seeing it in a different position.

By: nprigoda

nprigoda — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 12:37:58 -0800

wow! My brain is a weird and wonderful thing.

By: zempf

zempf — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 12:39:21 -0800

Holy smokes. That's freaking me out.

By: zeoslap

zeoslap — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 12:41:44 -0800

yes, that is a bona-fide brain twister.

my head hurts...

By: kliuless

kliuless — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 12:43:22 -0800

"THIS WILL BLOW YOUR MIND!"

By: adampsyche

adampsyche — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 12:43:34 -0800

Thanks for the post! My coworkers now think I dropped acid at lunch, with the way I am bobbing my head back and forth like a chicken...er, "fowl".

By: gleemax

gleemax — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 12:47:19 -0800

I love it! I want a poster version! I want it on the side of my house!

By: Holden

Holden — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 12:53:51 -0800

Thanks. That is so cool.

By: lotsofno

lotsofno — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 13:00:45 -0800

"somebodytoldmeificheckedthisoutit'dblowmymindsoiwentaheadandcheckeditoutand-BOOM!" optical illusions rock my world.

By: aLienated

aLienated — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 13:05:18 -0800

DAMMMMMMNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!! awesome posts........

By: tomplus2

tomplus2 — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 13:16:28 -0800

i like this one

By: skinjob

skinjob — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 13:33:19 -0800

hehe optical illusions are fun. i made one into a wallpaper just for the heck of it. *caution* may cause nausea...

By: elvissinatra

elvissinatra — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 14:02:54 -0800

Count the black dots.

By: mayalucia

mayalucia — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 14:05:01 -0800

ok, kliuless, yours just freaked the crap out of me. Time to start searching for a nunnery...I just found a boyfriend.

By: sylloge

sylloge — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 14:05:56 -0800

I caught that illusion off of milo a while ago. Very nice. Here's another good one (can't remember where I found this).

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 14:06:28 -0800

MY BRAIN HURTS!!!

By: sylloge

sylloge — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 14:06:50 -0800

stupid timeouts. sorry.

By: euphorb

euphorb — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 14:35:08 -0800

Nice find shadowkeeper. Illusionworks is a great source for illusions of all kinds.

By: milov

milov — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 14:35:25 -0800

Here's an animated version of the 'count the black dots' illusion sylloge mentioned.

By: diddlegnome

diddlegnome — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 14:55:46 -0800

There are seven black dots. What's the big deal? Just keep one eye closed, stare at the lower right-hand corner of the screen and use your peripheral vision to count the dots. It's that easy. The spinning wheel and tomplus2's crazy straight-line thing are, like, fah-reeky! And yeah, I made up the dot thing, but I had you for a second, didn't I? Excellent links, all. Remember sterograms, those TV-snow-looking pictures that changed into actual sorta-coherent images if you looked at them the right way? Were you awed by them? Want them to remain forever a mystery? Then whatever you do, don't go here.

By: fuq

fuq — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 15:21:22 -0800

my mind has officially been rocked.

By: holgate

holgate — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 15:21:35 -0800

Lovely and clever. By focusing on the dot, the concentric circles catch the eye's blind spot -- the place on the retina where it meets the optic nerve -- so the brain has to interpolate from its surroundings. Reminds you that looking and seeing are different things.

By: davidmsc

davidmsc — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 15:44:51 -0800

Damn you all! My head hurts! You'll be hearing from my lawyer for intentional distortion of my reality!

By: chuq

chuq — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 16:05:29 -0800

Coolest. Optical illusion. Ever. Actually, it's the second-coolest. The coolest optical illusion ever is the Tri-Zonal Space Warper, which I first bought years ago from an ad in OMNI Magazine. The link above has a little Javascript demo, but it's lame -- it's too small and spins too fast. The true force of this illusion requires you to spend the few bucks and get one yourself. One caveat -- you have to be an old fart and actually own a turntable. You know, that thing that plays LP records? (33-1/3 is the ideal speed, btw.) My favorite comment on this was from a friend in college who said, "It's like taking mushrooms, except it only lasts 10 seconds and is a lot cheaper."

By: sharksandwich

sharksandwich — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 16:26:17 -0800

"THIS WILL BLOW YOUR MIND!" posted by kliuless at 12:43 PM PST on October 18 Oh my gawd. I see BERT!

By: kliuless

kliuless — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 17:11:24 -0800

he lies within us all :) you mean like this chuq?

By: iain

iain — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 17:38:56 -0800

Love the last one kliuless! Was looking for it myself in fact. Oh well.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 19:36:43 -0800

Thank you kliuless for the tri-spinner. I haven't had that effect since...uh, well I'd rather not say. I remember the turntable version too...man that takes me back.

By: Bixby23

Bixby23 — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 23:59:36 -0800

Cool, but, like, I don't get it. How does the site know when I'm moving my head forward and backward. I heard XML was cool, but man... Funny, ColdChef. Funny...