Illusory Motion Optical Illusion

Here is another excellent optical illusion from Sarcone & Waeber. The below image is static, only the colors change. The base image is an anomalous motion optical illusion. When we add the changing color to the mix it is very hard not to believe that the image itself is not moving.

What do you think?

For more info and another example of Illusory Motion go here.

Stare at the center of the 'animated' image. The image is static only the colors change!

© 2005, Sarcone & Waeber
www.archimedes-lab.org
used w/permission

Tags: photos, optical_illusions, illusions, art

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Ferris Wheel Optical Illusion

I love this little animated Ferris wheel.

Look at the red outside edge, is the wheel going around clockwise or counter clockwise?

Are you sure?

Now look at the purple center of the Ferris wheel.

What is the truth of this illusion?

By now you hopefully have realized that this is just a two frame animated GIF and it alternates back and forth between only two positions. It doesn't go around in either direction. This is clearly seen when you focus on the center but look just to the outside edge and it appears that this Ferris wheel makes complete trips covering the full 360 degrees.

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Bubblybabs Optical Illusion

I found this on BubblyBabs FractalFairy's personal art album at FE Users Art Gallery.

In this illusion the apparent orifice in the center expands and contracts as
you move your head closer to the image and pull back from the image.

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Four-Stroke Apparent Motion

The below clip gives us the illusion of continuous motion. In fact there are only four frames that loop continuously. Two of the frames move forward the other two move backwards.



Copyright George Mather, 2003

George Mather, the creator of this piece, had this to say about this illusion.

This animation involves a repeating cycle of four different frames (hence "four-stroke"). The motorcycle moves forward and then backward again (the scenery moves backward and then forward again), but the backward step is accompanied by a reversal in contrast:

The effect of contrast reversal is to reverse the direction of perceived motion, so instead of appearing to move backwards between frames 2 and 3, and between frames 4 and 1, the motorcycle still appears to move forward. Consequently, the impression is of continuous forward motion. This kind of display was first described by Anstis & Rogers (1986), and is closely related to 'quadrature motion' displays (Carney & Shadlen, 1993).

Go to his site for a more in dept analysis of this and other illusions.

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Circles in Motion

I have seen this before but it never triggered as a great illusion. That is until I found it on a site that explained its activation. This is a great anomalous motion optical illusion.

Stare at the center dot and move your head toward the illusion, now pull back. The circles appear to move in one direction on the way in and reverse their motion when you pull back.

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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.

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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.

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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."

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