Optical illusions

June 16, 2008 7:15 AM

Optical illusions and why they look that way.
posted by OmieWise (26 comments total)

Fascinating. "When you look directly at the ovals in the display, the image of those ovals falls on the fovea. When you focus your gaze a few inches above your computer monitor, the image of the ovals falls in the visual periphery."

There's an explanation for everything. Thanks for the link OmieWise.
posted by netbros at 7:22 AM on June 16

Fun! It takes ages for the illusions to load but it's worth it.
posted by sveskemus at 7:22 AM on June 16

That squaring-the-diamond thing blew my mind.

MY MIND IS BLOWN.
posted by blue_beetle at 8:17 AM on June 16

Interesting post - thank you!
posted by speug at 8:39 AM on June 16

Excelent post - Perpetual Collision Illusion is a mind-bender - made me laugh out loud. Tks OmieWise.
posted by troutmask at 8:49 AM on June 16

That is certainly one of the
the best posts this week.
posted by hal9k at 9:14 AM on June 16 [1 favorite]

I don't see the one netbros linked above. Well, I see it, but I don't see anything odd about it. Is it like those magic eye pictures, which I also can't ever see?
posted by yhbc at 9:20 AM on June 16

I'm dizzy now, but it was worth it. Thanks OmniWise!
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:24 AM on June 16

Is it like those magic eye pictures, which I also can't ever see?

It's a schooner. I can't believe you can't see that.
posted by inigo2 at 9:36 AM on June 16

Squaring the diamond literally made me yell out loud. You get a certain distance away and it just "clicks" from one to the other. Amazing.
posted by cyclopticgaze at 9:37 AM on June 16

I've seen much better in Amsterdam.
posted by Meatbomb at 9:48 AM on June 16

The Blue Star is my favorite among the ones linked, just for the beautiful simplicity of it.
posted by quin at 10:28 AM on June 16

A schooner IS a sailboat, inigo2!
posted by clavicle at 10:32 AM on June 16

Thanks, this is awesome.

yhbc: I, also, didn't see the described effect in the one netbros linked to at first but when they tell you to focus your gaze several inches above the screen they actually mean about 12 in-- whoa! That is fun to play with.
posted by bobobox at 11:28 AM on June 16

One of the best optical illusions on the internet.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 12:05 PM on June 16 [10 favorites]

Great post!

One of the best optical illusions on the internet.

Fantastic.


...Now how do I turn it off?
posted by languagehat at 1:55 PM on June 16

If that's actually worrying you it'll fade with time, probably by the time you read this.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 1:59 PM on June 16

awesome, but gave me a slight headache. :(
posted by Lizc at 2:26 PM on June 16

Here are a few more for your viewing pleasure.
posted by netbros at 8:14 PM on June 16

One of the best optical illusions on the internet.

I'd favorite that, if I could get mouse pointer near the +. I think my contacts just caught fire.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 9:34 PM on June 16

[This is good].

I wish we still had the image tag, so I could hurt your eyes.
posted by loquacious at 11:15 PM on June 16

If you like this sort of thing you may be interested in this page about self-animating images. It has downloadable PDF papers and supplementary material.
posted by tellurian at 12:30 AM on June 17

Or not. It's up to you.
posted by tellurian at 6:40 AM on June 17

Awards to the 5th Visual Illusion of the Year Contest were awarded last month. The winning illusion doesn't have as trippy a phenomenological effect as a lot of other illusions, but it blew my mind. Afterimages are not supposed to work like that. I still don't understand why it works.
posted by painquale at 6:47 PM on June 17

So that last one painquale linked starts working for me, not in 20 seconds, but within a couple cycles of the animation. Something may be wrong with me.

I definitely, however, see an afterimage of the whole shape (two different colors) during the outlined parts. What's interesting is that the center does take on the color of the outlined part rather than a mix.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 7:34 PM on June 17

Can someone please please please take pity on me and explain how this cutting a man in half trick is done? (Found through the FPP link) Here's a version without cutaways. (Some people seem to think it's an amputee, but can anyone live cut in half at the waist?)
I'm going crazy trying to figure this out.
posted by CunningLinguist at 3:28 PM on June 18