Tuesday 10 November 2015

I've just come across this...


Look at it, then look away. Then please, please tell me why/how.

That's all.

22 comments:

  1. I'm not getting anything at all.

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    1. Z, unless you have a white stick and a beautiful dog it will work if you focus on the centre and move your head backwards and forwards. It's not dramatic but it should appear to creep.

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    2. I have excellent eyesight for my age and like "Z" didn't get anything from this would-be optical illusion.

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    3. I find it works (?) best if you look slightly to one side, Z. Adrian, thanks for the advice! YP maybe it doesn't work for everyone. I find it oddly disturbing.

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  2. It's called Optical Art.
    I don't know why the images creep but suspect it is something complicated like a fault between our brains and our retina.
    Maybe something akin to wagon wheels appearing to rotate backwards on old movies. I have some software that could make such patterns, I'll look into the matter in a minute.

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    1. I am going to try and make one now.

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    2. Oh, please don't, Adrian. I'm confused enough as it is.

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  3. I've always find optical art /optical illusions fascinating. Our brains are made to process visual information in a certain manner; we are able to catch the slightest movement from the corner of our eyes (a distinct evolutionary advantage), and we detect patterns even where there is just randomness (such as faces and other shapes in wood grain), for intance.
    Optical art relies on these mechanisms in our brains. Not everybody can see what they are supposed to see with such images; certain defects to someone's visual system (within the eye itself or further up in the brain) make it impossible.

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    1. Speaking of experience here, because there are certain optical art works that I can not "see" due to the condition of my eyes.

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    2. But did it move for you, Meike?

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    1. Isn't it? I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels that way, Patsy.

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  5. Do you mean the way it appears to move very slowly like a wheel as we stare?

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  6. Yep, it works for me! I wonder if these things are just produced by accident or whether there is a scientific factor that make it possible to predictably construct such optical illusions?

    By the way, if you don't see it, try looking at the 'members' list to the right, but stay aware of what is happening to the left of it.

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    1. Richard, I'm sure teams of scientists are working away, trying to come up with things like this to confuse people like me.

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  7. Yes, works for me. The wheel rotates. I love the picture puzzles where you stare ar the picture and a 3D image pops out.

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    1. Maggie, it rotates to the left for me. I wonder whether this varies....?

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  8. I've always found Op Art fascinating and had (have) a book on it. I know that the one you have shown works for me usually but, oddly, I can't get it to work at the moment. Yet I've just tried other ones on paper and they do work. It's very curious.

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