"What
if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that
case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet."
-
Woody Allen
Apparent
Movements
The
diagram below is static. However, when you stare
(not
too close!) at it, at a given time the 3 colored
concentric rings seem to glow and to rotate around
the central sphere
With
a little concentration, make the hearts around the King
spin in the opposite direction! Yes, it is possible...
Disappearing/Appearing
Cheshire Cat
Focus
your attention on the blue point
to make the Cheshire cat vanish!
Vanishing
black dot(s)
Try
now to focus on the blinking dot at the center of the
moving pattern below, while doing this the 3 dark dots
may disappear and reappear spontaneously (singly, in
pairs or all three). Steady vision induce disappearance,
gaze shifts induce reappearance!
The animated drawing below is based on an article of the
researcher Yoram Bonneh published in Nature
(Motion-induced
blindness)
Concentric
Sets
Stare
at the center of the diagram below. Keeping your gaze
fixed on the center, move your head backwards and
forwards. You may see the orange rings rotate counterwise!
Switch
the light in your room and step back about 1 meter
from
your computer screen. Then, look at the light points
shown below
out of the corner of your eyes (no direct vision!).
You may perceive
a furtive figure... If nothing happens, download the
image and modify
the light animation speed (approx. 1600 Hertz) until
you'll see a... heart!
Psychologically,
we tend to see circular objects larger (or smaller)
than they are in reality. Could you say what is the apparent
size
of the Moon? Is it as large as 1, 0.05 or 0.01 euro?
You might be surprised to learn that in fact the moon is
as large as 1 cent of euro (or a US dime) seen at a distance
of about 2 meters! You can verify it...
The
girls in the picture below seems to smile, but if you enlarge the
image... This illusion is a kind of ambiguous bistable
figure and is produced by merging 2 pixel matrixes having
different resolutions. When you see the image closer,
the ‘fine’ pixels will dominate (unhappy
girl), but when you observe the image from a
distance, you can see only the ‘large’ pixels
(happy girl). This illusion is based
on the optic
artwork of Salvador Dali: "Gala Contemplating
the Mediterranean Sea Which at Twenty Meters Becomes
the Portrait of Abraham Lincoln", 1976. Enlarge / Reduce image
MORE
OPTICAL ILLUSIONS?
Read here before copying and using any of our images
or texts. Thanks
Italy
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