Amazing Optical Illusions - Must See!

[Winston]

This is awesome! Check out this optical paper dragon illusion. As you movie, it's head and eyes follow you! See this video demo of it:



A blue one:



The concept in this dragon illusion has been used many times over. It's a simple concept that reverses the head so that when you change
the viewing angle the head appears to turn. The idea of this illusion can be used in many different ways, including by making a larger version.
Imagine a dragon that stands 8 or 9 feet tall and as you walk around it, the head follows you.

You can download the image of this dragon to print out and make one of your own here:

http://www.grand-illusions.com/images/a ... dragon.pdf

[Winston]

Check out this pig mirage toy. It's pretty neat!



You can order it here:

http://www.grand-illusions.com/acatalog/Mirage.html

[Winston]

Wow this one is amazing! Check out these balls rolling uphill, but the slope is not really uphill when you see the other side!



Winner of the Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest 2010
http://illusioncontest.neuralcorrelate.com
Koukichi Sugihara
Meiji Institute for Advanced Study of Mathematical Sciences, Japan

In this video, wooden balls roll up the slopes just as if they are pulled by a magnet. The behavior of the balls seems impossible, because it is against the gravity. The video is not a computer graphic, but a real scene. What is actually happening is that the orientations of the slopes are perceived oppositely, and hence the descending motion is misinterpreted as ascending motion. This illusion is remarkable in that it is generated by a three-dimensional solid object and physical motion, instead of a two-dimensional picture.

Another similar one:



Another variation:



Uphill plank illusion:



Floating cube illusion:



Simple cube optical illusion where we see what looks like floating or levitation

Download the blueprint template to make your own floating cube illusion: http://www.mediafire.com/?j5txojsc6rxma1j

A WTF illusion:



Another variation:



Wow check out this animated optical illusion. I wonder where you can get a book and sheet like this!



This one will blow your mind and make you think, WTF?! You could swear that those two squares were different colors, but they're actually the same color!



Here is an image version of this illusion:

[Winston]

Check out these image optical illusions. They will blow your mind. Wow!

An unexpected optical illusion.
Simply stare at the black dot in the middle of the picture, and gradually all the coloured clouds will disappear. The picture is not changing at all, and if you look away, you will immediately see that the coloured clouds are still there.
Weird or what?



A Great Illusion!

Just count the little black balls...
There are different names for this illusion, but the Scintillation Grid is probably the proper name. This illusion was found by Elke Lingelbach of the Institut fur Augenoptik Aalen in Germany, and is a modification of an illusion called the Hermann Grid, which dates from 1870!



Do you remember the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Dr Jekyll, the famous scientist, is not all he seems, and the other side of his character - Mr Hyde - is, you will recall, a distinctly nasty piece of work.
Continuing the idea of the two sides of the human character, have a look at the picture above. On the left is Dr Angry, and on the right is Mr Calm.
Now, back away from your computer screen. This effect will work at different distances for different people, but you should see the two characters swap over...! As you come closer to the screen again, they revert to their original characters. Spooky or what!
As optical illusions go, we think this is pretty impressive. A short explanation goes something like this. When we look at an object, we can normally see both fine detail and coarse detail. However when we are close, the fine detail will dominate, and when we are further away, we lose the fine detail, and see more of the coarse detail.
Both of the faces you see above are hybrids - each face is actually a combination of two faces. The left hand face shows an angry man in fine detail, but within the picture there is also coarse detail of the calm face. Move away, and you lose the fine (angry) detail, and just see the coarse (calm) detail.
The right hand face shows the calm face in fine detail, and the angry face in coarse detail.



Watch the X in the middle very closely. You should start to see a green dot that rotates around the circle - this dot is an illusion; then you should see see the purple dots disappear.... but they haven't really gone. It is an after image effect, sometimes called a 'negative retinal afterimage' - move your head slightly, and the dots will reappear... amazing or what?
This illusion was designed by Jeremy L Hinton of Bristol, UK, and this illusion - with a lot more explanation and many other illusions as well - can be found at the web site of Michael Bach.
If you liked this illusion, have a look at the Hollow Face Illusion...



This illusion has been around for a while, and we were recently reminded of it again by Chris Stevenson, from London.
Hard as it may be to believe, the two squares A and B are actually the same colour. There are different ways of proving this, and we have seen some elegant solutions.
Edward H Adelson is Professor of Vision Science at MIT, and is the creator of this illusion. If you want to know how it works, you will have to visit his site...

[Winston]

Vanishing head illusion:



Paranormality illusion: (this one is weird and freaky)

[Winston]

This one is incredible! I didn't know the brain could develop a negative image! See photo and instructions below.

[Winston]

This doesnt appear to be true. When i cover up the squares about square B, the shade of color on it is still lighter than square A and is not the same. Try it. So this appears to be a mistake, not some optical illusion, since B really is lighter than A. What do you all think? Am i missing something?

[Winston]

LOL This one took me a while to figure out.