Richard Wiseman’s viral clip Assumptions has been viewed more than 3 million times on YouTube, which immediately propelled him into #celebrity status. As a result of this success, Richard has been invited to create online content for various projects, including Derren Brown’s The Events, the launch of The Mentalist, and Transport For London’s campaign to promote road safety. As can be seen from this clip, Assumptions explore the power of perspective using a well known Ames Room effect.

Animations, Relative Sizes, ames, Animation, Clip, Gif, Illusion, Richard Wiseman

(35 votes)

While preparing new stuff for you to see this week, I came across this beautiful and funny-looking photograph made by Jens Birch. At first I intended to incorporate birds species into the caption, but then I realised I don’t have a clue if this photo involves ducks, swans or something else. Bird-spotters among you will have no problem identifying them, while I apologise for my ignorance and lack of research upfront… Few more similar examples can be seen here, here and here.

Outdoor Illusions, Spot The Object, Bird, Illusion, Jens Birch, Swan

(16 votes)

Old time viewers will immediately recognise Ikemath’s work in this #impossible objects gallery below. Randomly placed wristwatch serves as a reminder what we are seeing is real, and is probably used as some sort of signature representing Ikemath’s style. Check the gallery below, and see if you can decode how these objects came to be. It’s obvious they work only from certain perspective, where the solution could easily be seen if only we had access to the behind the scene footage….

Continue Reading …

Impossible Objects, Illusion, Impossible, Object, Paper, Structure, watch

(25 votes)

If you haven’t had the chance to see this “Missing/Extra Cube” video that went viral recently, here’s your chance to see it now! Norberto Jansenson has re-thinked famous missing-piece illusion (original version included triangle), and then presented it in much more appealing and effective manner.

The idea behind this toy is somewhat identical to “Preposterous Puzzle” and “Confuzzle“. Norberto starts with a wooden frame filled entirely by 63 cubical pieces, where he then starts rearranging them. By the end of the video he ends up with few extra pieces on his side. Let’s see if we can solve this illusive puzzle one more time!

Tests, Video Illusions, Cube, Illusion, missing, Norberto Jansenson, Piece

(82 votes)

Trapping viewer’s attention, which is the main goal in product advertising is more often than not incredibly difficult task to achieve. While already sky-high, user ad-blindness is rapidly increasing, with no signs on horizon showing this will change anytime soon.

However, one method stands tall, promising delivery – still being able to trap attention. Messages broadcasted in a “trivia” or “optical illusion” format have always proven successful, often making a person look twice and actually spending moment of their time thinking about the advertised message. This has been advocated here since the very beginnings of Mighty Optical Ilusions blog.

An example poster produced by Bruketa&Zinic agency designed for “Fathers and Sons” theatre performance uses well known “Rubin’s Vase” optical illusion motif, cleverly placing incomplete and unverbalised father-son relationships in the forefront. Spotlight features damaged and clumsily repaired vase, strongly alluding to an unresolved conflict – “a communication crack” standing in-between father and the son.

Rubin’s vase, an old school illusion that comes in many forms is a famous set of ambiguous two-dimensional forms developed around 1915 by the Danish psychologist Edgar Rubin

Billboards, Multiple Meanings, Illusion, Poster, Rubin, Theater, Vase

(23 votes)

A butterfly perches in the eye socket of a human skull, creating the illusion of an eye. This once in a lifetime photograph made by #Marko Popadic, titled “Oko” (meaning eye in Croatian) shows a perfectly posed butterfly sitting in the eye socket of a human skull. The big spot on the butterfly’s wing creates the impression of an eye, making it appear that the skull is watching you. In art, skulls are a symbol of death and finality, while butterflies are a symbol of birth, change and new beginnings. This photograph shows beautifully the juxtaposition between the two most important elements of nature – life and death. Very artistic, isn’t it?

Multiple Meanings, Skull Illusions, Butterfly, Eye, Illusion, Marko Popadic, skull

(37 votes)

Here’s something that started popping out all over the net lately. Below optical illusion animation takes some time to fully load (2MB #gif file), but when it does, all you have to do is blink fast and repeatedly – and when you do, beautiful mandalas shall emerge!

If you never heard of it, Mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning circle. They have a spiritual and ritual significance, representing the universe in Hinduism and Buddhism.

After the animation has fully loaded, blink fast and beautiful mandalas will emerge!

Animations, Blink, Circle, Gif, Hinduism, Illusion, Mandala

(37 votes)

If you remember, few years back we had a Pixel Challenge titled “Our Brain is Truly Wonderful“, where our remarkable ability to recognize faces was showcased. Today I bring you more blocky faces and paintings to tease your optic nerve with. Your brain’s power to decipher these ultra-low resolution images may seem miraculous at first, but I can assure you there’s no magic involved! Even though most of them represent a well known figure from the past or a famous portrait, some cultural conditioning may apply. You won’t be able to recognise figures you wouldn’t know if you seen them in person (for example I’ve mistaken third picture for Albert Einstein), but no worries – after you’re done guessing you can browse through our solution gallery which can be found at the end of this article! BTW, you can try standing back from your monitor to get a more holistic view.

Continue Reading …

Celebrities, Spot The Object, Tests, Challenge, Illusion, Pixel, Portrait, Recognise

(23 votes)