The Illusion Images: 2004

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Thursday, December 30, 2004

Motion Induced Blindness

I found this on 52 Optical Illusions & Visual Phenomena, by Michael Bach his page has a wide array of interactive Flash illusions, very well done. Michael Bach refers to "Motion Induced Blindness" by Yoram Bonneh, Alexander Cooperman and Dov Sagi as the source for this illusion. They say the following about this illusion:

Motion Induced Blindness (MIB) is a phenomenon of "visual disappearance" in which salient visual stimuli disappear as if erased in front of the observers eyes. This demo demonstrates several properties of this phenomenon. It is implemented as a set of GIF animation and can only be appreciated if the apparent motion appears smooth or almost smooth. In general, fixate in the center or lower part of the screen without moving the eyes, pay attention to the moving pattern and observe what happens to the static yellow dots.

The Impossible Cube, Crate or Box

Sometimes the impossible is possible. I have seen this cube done in many ways. The drawing is easy but I have seen this crate actually constructed. The one of real wood is very real looking, how was it done? Actually constructed? or a photoshop creation?

The box can be constructed as long as it is viewed from the proper angle. Continue further down the page for a few different real physical constructs of this illusion. The Lady holding the box below I found on Amazing Art.

Below is Jerry Andrus demonstrating his construction of the impossible crate and exposing how he accomplished this illusion. (Found on Amos Storkey's page)

Click on the below image to view a larger movie of this construct (approx. 1 meg). Found on Natis' site.

Inverted Game Board

The below illusion was done by Eric Piotrowski, he took his inspiration from the classic impossible chess set. His site is full of 3d art based on the game Go.

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

The Enigma

The below image was done in 1984 by French artist Isia Leviant. The complete explanation for the activity around the circles is still not understood.

Stare at the center of the figure for a while. Some ‘scintillating’ activity will build up in the violet and blue annuli. Some observers also report a circular rotation within these regions; things will begin to “run around in circles”.

The Green Square

I found this at the "Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics" They worked In collaboration with Dan Kersten, Minnesota, USA to demonstrate the below illusion.

If the cast shadow of an object is moving, we assume that the object is moving and not the light source... ...A moving shadow induces a motion in depth of a stationary object (green square is not moving).

Just in case it is not yet understood. The green square above is absolutely still. It does not move. The shadow on the other hand is animated and does move across the image including changing the color slightly of the green square. This moving shadow creates the illusion of movement of the green square.

Update: Try this. Take out your ID card and cover half of the green square from the bottom left diagonal to the top right. Now it is apparent that the square is not moving. Very interesting effect.

Update 2: I just noticed something I had previously not realized. It looks like the shading of the green square changes. It seems as the shadow moves the tinting and shading on top of the green square is also manipulated to complete the illusion. The truth is not only doesn't the green square move but it is a constant non-varying shade of green. These two illusions here and here can explain why it appears as if the shading on the green square changes.

The Haze Illusion

From the same team at MIT that brought you the Checker shadow illusion here is a flash movie demonstration that outlines how the some shades of color can be made to look different when the context of what it around them changes.

Pachinko illusion

Hold on to your seats here is yet another illusion that has to be prefixed with the statement that this is not an animated file. If this looks like it is in motion to you (as it does to me) then you might be suffering from an Optical Illusion.

Click picture for full effect.

"Pachinko"*

*One of the games Japanese people prefer

Yellowish-green circles appear to scintillate. Moreover, rings of balls appear to rotate.

Saturday, December 25, 2004

Merry Christmas

In the spirit of Christmas I present to you in the Christmas colors (red & green) an anomalous motion illusion. As always remember, If it looks like it is in motion to you then you might be suffering from an Optical Illusion.

"Green peaces"

The inset appears to move rightward.

An Octopus

The picture below is another illusion that appears to be in motion. I want to point people to the caution at the top of this page. Please read and understand this caution prior to moving forward. Remember, If it looks like it is in motion to you then you might be suffering from an Optical Illusion.

Click picture for full effect.

"An octopus"

The octopus appears to move.

Friday, December 24, 2004

Word Jumble

Illusion? No. But it does play on the mind. What is it in the brain that allows things like this to work? Even though the letters are jumbled in the following paragraph,most people have no trouble reading it!

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Rats on Parade

This is a creepy animation. I found it at zoneflash.net The site is in French and I don't understand a word, but it has some good interactive flash animations. Go to their site and try a few links, I think this interactive animation is fascinating, move your cursor through and around this flash and see what happens.

The Cafe Wall Illusion

Here is the famous Cafe Wall illusion. This effect is another mind altering trip. The lines are all parallel to each other and straight as an arrow.

The background below is from the Exploratorium in San Francisco, CA. They have an outstanding site start with thier animation of this illusion so you can better understand the effect.

The Cafe Wall Illusion was first described by Dr. Richard Gregory. Dr. Gregory is a good friend of the Exploratorium and director of The Exploratory Hands On Science Museum in Bristol, England. Dr. Gregory observed this curious effect in a pattern of tiles on a cafe wall in Bristol.... Note that the effect is not visible in the picture due to the small scale of the tiles.

Monday, December 20, 2004

The Zoom Quilt

The Zoom Quilt is a patchwork of images sewn together to give you the illusion of a 3d world. It is a collaborative art project based on Macromedia Flash that illustrates what a 3D Zooming User Interface (ZUI) might look and feel like.

The Moving Fish

First let me state that the spiral is animated and moving by design. The spiral is not an optical illusion. That said let's see how we can transfer the animation from the moving spiral to the fish scene. Focus on the spiral center exclusively for at least 60 seconds, then shift your focus to the fish. It's amazing how the fish actually float in the ocean currents.

Update: I now know that this is Jerry Andrus' Tri-Zonal Space Warper. The original instructions were "Stare at the center of the spiral for about a minute. Then look at the back of your hand.It will appear to be twitching and moving."

Sunday, December 19, 2004

Disgustingly Sweet Illusion

Barbara Jo from "They're Coming to Get You Barbara" made this cake for Halloween.

Barbara says, I generally make a bleeding heart cake for our annual pumpkin carving party (Pumpkinfest). Sometimes the heart beats, sometimes it's anatomically correct, and so on and so forth. This year I decided to go the whole hog and make an entire thoracic cavity cake. The plan was for each organ to be made out of a different kind of cake and to secrete a different color of fluid when it was cut into. Previous heart cakes have bled fresh, homemade raspberry sauce. This year I made raspberry, strawberry, kiwi, mango, and blueberry sauces. Sadly, the organs didn't bleed as well as I had hoped when I cut the cake, as each organ was relatively small and couldn't hold much sauce. Also all the moving around after filling the organs made it hard to keep the sauce contained in the little cavities I hollowed out. The heart bled pretty well, but the other organ fluids weren't very dramatic. On the bright side, there were lots of leftover sauces, which were all quite delicious. But I'm getting ahead of myself. My intended organ-cake-sauce combinations were as follows. For Directions click here:

Saturday, December 18, 2004

Man in the Mirror

Have you ever wondered what the guy in the mirror does when your not looking? Sort of like does the light really go off when you close the refrigerator? I found this item over on Laurie's Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime. This is obviously a special effect and not in the tradition of basic brain fooling illusions but I thought it was interesting enough (in a goofy sense) to put here and share with the group.

Thursday, December 16, 2004

The Emperors New Clothes Revised Edition

Heidi Klum Swimsuit Optical Illusion

This isn't going to be a theme on this blog, but this is Heidi Klum sporting an excellent illusion of a bathing suit. I wonder if either of the pavement artists (Julian or Kurt) below did this work?

Sports Illustrated's 1999 Swimsuit layout
Body Painting by Joanne Gair
Photograph by Antoine Verglas

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Christmas Eve Fun For The Kids

Well NORAD is going to be tracking Santa again this year. This is the 50th year Santa will be tracked by the military. This is essential to ensure that we don't accidentally shoot Santa down and we have advised Santa in the past of hot spots so he knows when he'll have to be particularly stealthy.

Personally we have been tracking Santa on the NORAD site for the last 4 years. It has been great and the kids get to see Santa cam footage (a new report every hour) as Santa progresses through the time zones. Make sure you have the right plugins setup ahead of time.

How this tradition came about.

This is the 50th season that NORAD and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) have tracked Santa. The tradition began after a Colorado Springs store's advertisement for children to call Santa on a special "hotline" included a misprinted telephone number. Instead of Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief's operations "hotline." The Director of Operations, Colonel Harry Shoup, received the first "Santa" call on Christmas Eve 1955. Realizing what had happened, Colonel Shoup had his staff check radar data to see if there was any indication of Santa making his way south from the North Pole. Indeed there were signs of Santa and children who called were given an update on Santa's position. Thus, the tradition was born. In 1958, the governments of Canada and the United States decided to create a bi-national air defense command for the North American continent called the North American Air Defense Command. Canada and the U.S. believed they could better defend North America together as a team instead of separately.

Click for larger picture suitable for wallpaper.

The Command carried out its first Santa tracking in 1958 after inheriting the tradition from CONAD. Since that time, Canadian and American men and women who work at NORAD have responded to phone calls from children personally. Additionally, media from all over the world call NORAD on Christmas Eve for updates on Santa's location. Last year this Website was visited by millions of people who wanted to know Santa's whereabouts. This year, the information is provided in six languages.

NORAD relies on many volunteers to help make Santa tracking possible. Many people at Cheyenne Mountain and Peterson Air Force Base spend part of their Christmas Eve with their families and friends at NORAD’s Santa Tracking Operations Center in order to answer phones and provide Santa updates to the many thousands of children who calls in.

NORAD helps you setup and test your machine ahead of time.

Every year, Santa's travels are watched by the men and women of NORAD. This year will be no exception. Starting early in the morning of December 24, 2004, we'll be tracking him. Based on careful record keeping from years past, and highly skilled radar and satellite technicians, we normally know exactly where Santa is throughout Christmas Eve.

On Christmas Eve we'll post a map of the world on this web site. It will pinpoint a few of the thousands of places Santa visits. We'll update the map throughout Christmas Eve, showing you where Santa is every moment, where he's been and where he's going. Clicking on that map will display Santa Cam videos of his journey.

Go here to ensure your computer is setup properly in advance.

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Rembrandt

Julian Beever has made pavement drawings for over ten years. He has worked in the U.K., Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Germany, the USA and Australia.

Anamorphic illusions drawn in a special distortion in order to create an impression of 3 dimensions when seen from one particular viewpoint.

This box of Rembrandt pastels was drawn with Rembrandt pastels.

Arctic Street Conditions With Soft Drink

Self-Portrait Of The Artist With Liquid Refreshment

Swimming-Pool In The High Street

Portable Computer

Julian Beever has made pavement drawings for over ten years. He has worked in the U.K., Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Germany, the USA and Australia.

Anamorphic illusions drawn in a special distortion in order to create an impression of 3 dimensions when seen from one particular viewpoint.

The illusion of the Portable Computer was drawn on The Strand, London and was commissioned by Procom.

Floating Beans

You've seen mexican jumping beans , these must be from the same family. They certainly appear to move about the image. For the record this image is not animated.

Click on the picture to experience the full effect.

Rollers
Copyright A.Kitaoka 2004 (April 20)

Politicians Meeting Their End

Julian Beever has made pavement drawings for over ten years. He has worked in the U.K., Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Germany, the USA and Australia.

Anamorphic illusions drawn in a special distortion in order to create an impression of 3 dimensions when seen from one particular viewpoint.

The illusion of the Politicians Meeting Their End was drawn outside The Bank of England and was commissioned by Channel 4's Midnight Special for the night of the 1997 General Election.

World's Biggest Fly-Spray

Julian Beever Giant Fly Optical Illusion

The Rescue

Julian Beever has made pavement drawings for over ten years. He has worked in the U.K., Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Germany, the USA and Australia.

Anamorphic illusions drawn in a special distortion in order to create an impression of 3 dimensions when seen from one particular viewpoint. This one was designed to be viewed through an inverting mirror.

The Real Thing

Monday, December 13, 2004

Treasure Hunting

Julian Beever created these pavement drawings and took these pictures for a series used by White's Electronics of Inverness in Treasure Hunting magazine.

Julian Beever Treasure Hunt Optical Illusion 1

Julian Beever Treasure Hunt Optical Illusion 2

Julian Beever Treasure Hunt Optical Illusion 3

Julian Beever Treasure Hunt Optical Illusion 4

Julian Beever Treasure Hunt Optical Illusion 5

Sunday, December 12, 2004

Reflections

Here is another one by Kurt Wenner. Go his site to see the rest of this artist's work. Here is a good question and answer session with the artist.

Reflections,

Grazie di Curtatone, Italy

Click on the picture to experience the full effect.

Absolut Wenner

The below 3d street art was done by Kurt Wenner, Master Street Painter. From Kurt's site the following is gathered.

Kurt Wenner was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and raised in Santa Barbara, California. He produced his first commissioned mural at the age of sixteen and by seventeen was earning his living as a graphic artist. He attended both Rhode Island School of Design and Art Center College of Design. He was employed by NASA as an advanced scientific space illustrator, creating conceptual paintings of future space projects and extra-terrestrial landscapes according to the latest scientific information provided by the Voyager spacecraft. In 1982, he left NASA and sold his belongings to go to Italy and study art. Living in Rome, Wenner studied the great masters and drew constantly from classical sculptures in the museums. Read On...

"Absolut Wenner"

Kurt Wenner Absolut Ad 3d Optical Illusion

Click on the picture to experience the full effect.

Wenner was asked to create a print ad for Absolut Vodka as part of its prestigious artist ad series. Wenner joined the ranks of well known artists such as Warhol and Haring who have participated in the series. The ad, known as Absolut Wenner, began appearing in magazines in September 1996. Absolut Vodka also filmed the creation of Wenner's art for a television commercial.

If This isn't an Illusion Then Dogs are in Trouble

I hope the dogs have a plan to handle this little uprising. Ok this isn't an illusion, but it does cause one to think twice.

Try and Focus...

This reminds me of the opening of that classic TV show The Outer Limits (please be seated before viewing further)

"There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image; make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to the outer limits."

"Kitaoka Out of Focus"

This was created by Akiyoshi Kitaoka.

Friday, December 10, 2004

Concentric Circles

Below are two perfectly concentric circles. One floating perfectly centered in the other. I hear a murmur of disbelief.... Print it out and measure it for yourself.

"Kitaoka Strange Appearance"

I think this may have been created by Akiyoshi Kitaoka.

Wednesday, December 8, 2004

USA Landmark?

Can you name this National Landmark?

Meteor Carter in Arizona Optical Illusion

Click on the picture for closer look.

After taking a closer look if you still need help check out this post.

Wednesday, December 1, 2004

Dreaming of a Modern Conveyance Illusion Art

The below painting was painted by D.L. Rusty Rust a true American Master.

Erie, Pennsylvania, native D.L. "Rusty" Rust is an artist with a repertoire as extensive as his talent. An immensely prolific painter, Rust adeptly renders intriguing camouflage wildlife scenes, landscapes, seascapes, still-life's and portraits. His work is part of many prestigious collections, including Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, the Ringling Museum of the Circus, and the Norman Rockwell Museum in Philadelphia.

Can you find what is camouflaged in this painting?

"Dream"

Click on the picture for a larger image.

This picture and many others are available for purchase from the artist.

Chevrons on Parade Optical Illusion

Is this moving counter-clockwise or am I just feeling the effects of the cold medication I'm on.

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Man's Face Optical Illusion

In this optical illusion can you see the 4 women that make up this man's face?

Click to enlarge picture a see things clearly

Seven Hearts Optical Illusion

This is an optical illusion of a different type. One the most enjoyable paper activities I did as a kid was the hidden picture puzzles. Find the seven hearts in this picture and relive a little part of your childhood. I don't have the answers, but I did put down my guesses in the comments.

Copyright Jim Warren
Used w/permission

Update: I found the answers on the artist's site. This painting was done by Jim Warren click on the picture to go to the artist site for the answers. While your there check out the rest of his site it is well worth it.

Monday, November 29, 2004

Trippy Mirror Animation

This optical illusion is an excellent example of a recursive animation.

Click on the link below the animation to go to the creator's site.

The Illusion of Perpetual Motion

Here is an example of a scientific illusion. A perpetual motion machine sketched out in the 17th century. It seems simple enough, the water wheel moves the pump which pumps the water to the top which moves the water wheel. As an added bonus they use a linkage to move a grinding stone and grind their wheat. Preety sweet deal if it worked.

You can see this an others at the Museum of Unworkable Devices

Saturday, November 27, 2004

Old Man or Young Couple?

In this optical illusion most of us will see a portrait of an old man. However if you look closer you might be able to see a young couple kissing.

Hint: His eyes are the hair of each person in the kiss.

Boston University Brings You Project LITE

This is an excellent interactive site that explores color, light, motion, depth, form and other interesting visual phenomena.

Of particular interest on this site is their LITE Vision area. This area includes a range of visual effects and illusions. Currently under development, it is written in Flash. Many of the applets allow the user to explore, manipulate and enhance the phenomena under study.

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The X Files

Thursday, December 30, 2004

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Saturday, December 25, 2004

Friday, December 24, 2004

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Monday, December 20, 2004

Sunday, December 19, 2004

Saturday, December 18, 2004

Thursday, December 16, 2004

Heidi Klum Swimsuit Optical Illusion

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Monday, December 13, 2004

Sunday, December 12, 2004

Friday, December 10, 2004

Wednesday, December 8, 2004

Wednesday, December 1, 2004

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Monday, November 29, 2004

Saturday, November 27, 2004

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