MetaFilter posts tagged with optical

Play With Your Blind Spot

cybercoitus interruptus — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 20:54:56 -0800

Blind Spot Optical Illusions. Online seminar from McCormick Lab at Yale lets you find your own visual blind spots. After that, you can make Monet's sun, and Van Gogh's ear, disappear. Map your blind spot. Adapt to color (1, 2). Adapt to motion (making things swirl). Student Letters: "Dear Mr McCormick, Please don't suck out our brains!" (The student's reference to "gummies" may possibly refer to novelty candy from here.) Previously.

Things that are not what they seem

not_on_display — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:34:06 -0800

The Mighty Optical Illusions website contains a ton of things to mess with your visual cortex, from 3D chalk drawings to impossible objects; spot-the-object games, tests, and the just plain spooky, among many other categories. Or you can just keep hitting the Random Illusion button until you lose yourself.

eye-opening curiosities

madamjujujive — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 08:07:06 -0800

"Of all the various types of optical objects known to exist, far and away the most magnificent and attractive are the optical fans." These sly spying devices, now rare collector curiosities, were once a more discreet and chic alternative for spying on your neighbors in fashionable gatherings than opera glasses, spyglasses, or jealousy glasses.

Silhouette pirouette

painquale — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 20:00:07 -0800

Is the dancer spinning clockwise or counterclockwise? An optical illusion. Ignore the right brain/left brain gobblydegook.

Da-Doo Ron RONJA

goodnewsfortheinsane — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 08:45:23 -0800

RONJA is an optical networking device that can be built by nearly everyone, using readily available components and using only free software.

Trippy optical illusion

brain_drain — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 13:31:22 -0800

Your daily dose of perception-bending. Stare at the center of this video (wmv or flash) for a minute or two then look away from the screen at your surroundings. You'll experience an interesting and somewhat disconcerting effect. Not appropriate for anyone prone to headaches or seizures.

Mr Angry & Mrs Calm

smackfu — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 09:48:16 -0800

Mr Angry & Mrs Calm. This illusion will BLOW YOUR MIND.

Masters of Deception

hortense — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 22:43:52 -0800

Masters of Deception "There are a number of incredible artistic works featured in Masters of Deception, which require movement to appreciate their full impact. Additionally, I had in my possession various interviews with some of the book's featured artists that I wanted to share with my readership. Unfortunately, the publisher was unwilling to produce a CD to accompany the book. I have created this web site, therefore, to augment and enhance the reader's experience by presenting those works and interviews that I could not present in book form." Al Seckel. enjoy.

Rapid Afterimage Optical Illusion

srboisvert — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 13:50:28 -0800

Rapid Afterimage Optical Illusion

Brain tricks

jeremy — Fri, 21 May 2004 12:30:05 -0800

Red and green dots have never been so interesting. At least to a geek like me. I love it when my brain plays tricks on me.

May I have some Moire, please?

moonbird — Mon, 19 Apr 2004 12:11:44 -0800

Remember the weirdness with Bush's hypnotic rainbow tie last week? Now you too can experiment with creating mesmerizing patterns on Project LITE's Moire page.
[via j-walk blog]

sandlot science

crunchland — Mon, 03 Nov 2003 07:48:41 -0800

sandlot science ... optical illusions and visual oddities... hundreds of exhibits and interactive demonstrations.

Eyes Hurt!

Niahmas — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 12:24:58 -0800

Eyes Hurt? Wavy,Strained.Stressed get some Sun!

taz — Fri, 27 Sep 2002 01:27:26 -0800

A professor of vision science at MIT understands that life isn't just black and white, even though we often see it that way. This amazing illusion proves it, and these slick, fast-loading, Flash demonstrations of lightness perception show how it's done. (My favorite is the "Koffka Ring".) White paper here, for deeper background.