By Vurdlak on March 28, 2013, with 14 Comments
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!
(38 votes)By Vurdlak on March 24, 2013, with 38 Comments
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.
(23 votes)By Vurdlak on March 22, 2013, with 12 Comments
Take a look at this short and simple animated #gif showcasing the Jastrow illusion in action! The Jastrow illusion was first discovered in 1889, by American psychologist Joseph Jastrow. In this clip, both figures are identical in size, although the lower one appears to be slightly longer. The short edge of the upper shape is compared to the long side of the lower one. If you still can’t pinpoint what causes this illusion – it’s because the lower object is placed slightly to the right. This isn’t immediately noticed, because both of their edges are skewed, and both are placed along the imaginary line, one parallel to their edges. I’m not sure I managed to explain this properly, so better take a look at this picture below and you’ll understand the cause immediately!
(39 votes)By Vurdlak on March 19, 2013, with 21 Comments
Browsing Moillusions history articles for a while made me realise we haven’t had that many #murals lately. Not being lazy, I started crawling my repository for something cool that could fill the gap, when this magnificent building appeared right in front of me – the photo depicts a mural of a blueprint, painted on a side of a building that used to be a furnishing store. I really liked it. If you look closely, you’ll notice how the second window from the right (2nd floor) is partially obstructed to maintain the illusion. Not sure if this still exists, but I bet our viewers from Portland can share some insight about the building today. It stands somewhere at the corner of Free and Center Streets, if I did my research right.
(31 votes)By Vurdlak on March 16, 2013, with 12 Comments
As you move your eyes around these pictures, pattern in use produces an illusory movement, making the “Eye of The Dragon” ascend or descend. The pulsation direction solely depends on the picture you picked for observation. All of these were created by #Akiyoshi Kitaoka, who it seems has became regular author we feature. First picture below, originally titled “Ascending Dragon” is the one that worked best for me. I couldn’t believe the image was static. Each time I moved my eyeballs around it (even slightly), it seemed as if the whole spiral approached me a step closer – even though I knew this couldn’t have happened. Let’s see if it worked for you, or am I too tired to be objective…
(19 votes)By Vurdlak on March 13, 2013, with 15 Comments
In order to successfully run highly popular blog such as this one, one has to make early peace with the fact he can’t make everyone happy at all times. There just isn’t that many different old-school illusions to keep your interest (without recycling) – so I have to become creative here and then. Sometimes I have to stretch the definition of “illusion” as far as I can, just to be able to showcase some interesting stuff I’m firm most of you would appreciate.
But today, I crawled the deepest and darkest parts of the web to provide those of you complaining how this or that “isn’t illusion!” with something proper. Don’t get me wrong – your criticism is highly respected! It’s something that keeps me on the right path, so I don’t divert too much. Having said that, let’s look at the illusions attached – the first one includes a circle that doesn’t appear like one, where other three show lines that seem distorted or unparalleled in one way or the other. Which one you did you like the most?
(16 votes)By Vurdlak on March 11, 2013, with 8 Comments
Our favourite professor has done it again! Akiyoshi has created showcased illusory pattern titled “Chidori” (which is some kind of a bird if I understood it correctly), which gives an impression that the inner block is moving in upper-diagonal direction. To amplify the effect, simply scroll the page up and down slightly. After a while, you’ll see the inner block floating on top of its background. If you’re lucky, you’ll experience the 3D stereoscopic effect without having to go cross-eyed or wearing those clumsy 3D glasses!
(27 votes)By Vurdlak on March 7, 2013, with 31 Comments
In what’s got to be one of the smartest print ad campaigns I’ve seen in a while, HBO’s hit show “Game of Thrones” was advertised in Monday’s New York Times using an innovative technique that makes you do a double-take. With the new season starting this month, I bet we’re about to see even more similar stunts advertising the show on various other platforms. How long did it take before you got it?
(62 votes)
