October 18, 2001

12:29 PM

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.)
posted by Shadowkeeper (29 comments total)

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.
posted by moss at 12:36 PM on October 18, 2001

wow! My brain is a weird and wonderful thing.
posted by nprigoda at 12:37 PM on October 18, 2001

Holy smokes. That's freaking me out.
posted by zempf at 12:39 PM on October 18, 2001

"THIS WILL BLOW YOUR MIND!"
posted by kliuless at 12:43 PM on October 18, 2001

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".
posted by adampsyche at 12:43 PM on October 18, 2001

I love it! I want a poster version! I want it on the side of my house!
posted by gleemax at 12:47 PM on October 18, 2001

Thanks. That is so cool.
posted by Holden at 12:53 PM on October 18, 2001

"somebodytoldmeificheckedthisoutit'dblowmymindsoiwentaheadandcheckeditoutand-BOOM!"

optical illusions rock my world.
posted by lotsofno at 1:00 PM on October 18, 2001

DAMMMMMMNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!! awesome posts........
posted by aLienated at 1:05 PM on October 18, 2001

i like this one
posted by tomplus2 at 1:16 PM on October 18, 2001

hehe optical illusions are fun. i made one into a wallpaper just for the heck of it. *caution* may cause nausea...
posted by skinjob at 1:33 PM on October 18, 2001

Count the black dots.
posted by elvissinatra at 2:02 PM on October 18, 2001

ok, kliuless, yours just freaked the crap out of me. Time to start searching for a nunnery...I just found a boyfriend.
posted by mayalucia at 2:05 PM on October 18, 2001

I caught that illusion off of milo a while ago. Very nice.

Here's another good one (can't remember where I found this).
posted by sylloge at 2:05 PM on October 18, 2001

MY BRAIN HURTS!!!
posted by ColdChef at 2:06 PM on October 18, 2001

stupid timeouts. sorry.
posted by sylloge at 2:06 PM on October 18, 2001

Nice find shadowkeeper. Illusionworks is a great source for illusions of all kinds.
posted by euphorb at 2:35 PM on October 18, 2001

Here's an animated version of the 'count the black dots' illusion sylloge mentioned.
posted by milov at 2:35 PM on October 18, 2001

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.
posted by diddlegnome at 2:55 PM on October 18, 2001

my mind has officially been rocked.
posted by fuq at 3:21 PM on October 18, 2001

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.
posted by holgate at 3:21 PM on October 18, 2001

Damn you all! My head hurts! You'll be hearing from my lawyer for intentional distortion of my reality!
posted by davidmsc at 3:44 PM on October 18, 2001

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."
posted by chuq at 4:05 PM on October 18, 2001

"THIS WILL BLOW YOUR MIND!"
posted by kliuless at 12:43 PM PST on October 18

Oh my gawd. I see BERT!
posted by sharksandwich at 4:26 PM on October 18, 2001

he lies within us all :)

you mean like this chuq?
posted by kliuless at 5:11 PM on October 18, 2001

Love the last one kliuless! Was looking for it myself in fact.
Oh well.
posted by iain at 5:38 PM on October 18, 2001

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.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:36 PM on October 18, 2001

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...
posted by Bixby23 at 11:59 PM on October 18, 2001