Another auto post for you! As you are reading this, I’m with my my girlfriend on a 4-day visit to her family. Don’t worry about me not posting - I took my laptop along with me, and with a little luck I’ll manage to obtain appropriate 3G signal and post new stuff in the following days. By the way, I forgot to ask you all how did you spend Christmas? Was Santa good for you this year, or was he “recession-ing” as well? Now that I explained everything, let’s switch to optical illusion part. In both pictures the same phenomenon occurs. The colorful pattern surrounds parallel lines, and creates the illusion that the lines are not parallel.

Examples I posted are a variation of Zollner, Hering, Wundt and Orbison illusion. I never knew the difference between them, so don’t ask. You should check Wikipedia for more. Although the Zollner one, and other similar illusions have not been completely explained yet, they have stimulated much valuable research into human perceptual processes. It may have something to do with the way the brain and visual system perceive the angles that surround the parallel lines. Additionally, the illusion may be enhanced by the impression of depth created by linear perspective.