By Vurdlak on March 28, 2010, with 33 Comments
Today’s optical illusion video rivals the original Checker-Shadow Illusion, one we’ve originally seen created by MIT professor Edward Adelson, way back in 1995. This illusion was later recreated number of times, and by time, all of them variations demanded their very own category to be listed under. The version we show today was recreated by R. Beau Lotto, whose motive was used by creator of this video to show the effect in action. As Neatorama reports, this illusion shows us how the human visual system is not that great at being a physical light meter.
Since I’ve introduced you to our very own hosted video player, I just can’t get enough of posting all those clips. I really adore the simplicity of our player, but the only problem I couldn’t overpass is the “defer” java script attribute appended to the plugin. Why is this such a problem? Since you all know me as a perfectionist I am, I can’t overlook the fact how the video is the last thing that loads on the site (due to the defer attribute). I tried removing it, but no luck! Can someone out there come with the quick fix, that lets our player load immediately? I would be more than grateful! Fixed! Does it work properly (player shows immediately) now? ;) Btw, you can see more of greeenpro2009′s optical illusions if you check out his YouTube channel.
(39 votes)By Vurdlak on March 26, 2010, with 28 Comments
Since there was Part I of Non-Existing Spirals posted exactly one month ago, you presumed logically the sequel would arrive soon. Once again you were right! I have so many new and interesting Spiral Illusions to share, it would be unproductive to post each one as separate post, but then again – it wouldn’t make much sense to push them altogether through one single post, either. They would drive attention one from another, so I came up with a decision to group 2 or max 3 of them at once. Part III should follow soon! The question was asked on numerous occasions, and once again I ask you if you can believe all of them spirals below, are actually set of multiple concentric circles! Which one was hardest not to see as a spiral? You tell me! I would go with first one…
(26 votes)By Vurdlak on March 25, 2010, with 24 Comments
By now, most of you know that 3D chalk drawings and wall murals can create quite impressive optical illusions. Unfortunately, this only works if you observe them under precise and unique angle. Numerous times we have seen them conventional drawings look 3D from perfect perspective, but there is a new approach by Utrecht student Sander ter Braak, who brought this onto the next level.
Sander created a real-time animated object that tracks your location, and accordingly adjusts itself to look 3D from wherever you are standing. He called the installation “Augmented Anamorphosis“, which by the way is his graduation project at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten. In the video below, first we see some simulations, user views, and finally the anamorphosis in practice.
For now, it is just a simple blue cube … but imagine the possibilities: 3D holographic landscapes that update in real time, video software you can download and project at home on walls, floors and ceilings, backgrounds you display on the outside of a building, three-dimensional gaming, effects… Where people once thought that virtual-reality would happen overnight, we are learning that augmented reality and virtual worlds combined with experiments like this may finally start to blend realities and blur the line between digital and physical spaces.
(43 votes)By Vurdlak on March 23, 2010, with 15 Comments
There was a nice tutorial published on VectorTuts+ yesterday, provided by Iaroslav Lazunov. Iaroslav used 43 visual steps to demonstrate how this vector-styled optical illusion came to existence. Those of you interested in CG and vector graphics can jump to the original tutorial, while rest of us (lazy consumerist bastards) will enjoy and concentrate on the finished product. There are few, well known optical illusions fused into one image. The crooked spiral, impossible columns and cafe wall. Everything you need to know about them illusions was already said, numerous times. However, if you check the seemingly bent floor tiles (reference to Cafe Wall), you’ll be amazed that the lines intersecting the tiles are perfectly straight and parallel. Seeing isn’t always believing…
(39 votes)By Vurdlak on March 22, 2010, with 56 Comments
Hope you had a nice weekend, like I did. Sun began to show-up, and I believe spring has finally arrived to this part of Europe. To celebrate, I have prepared another seasonal illusion for you. Even though the trees in this picture appear to prepare themselves for winter, just ignore them – they’re wrong :)
Before we begin, I’d like to give credit to Gianni A. Sarcone of Archimedes’ Laboratory for creating this puzzling card. Erica, visitor who shared this with us, suggested there are numerous oddities hidden inside this picture. How many can you spot? To be sincere, I noticed only one. How many are there? Be sure to point them all out!
By the way, some of my friends warned me they had certain site-loading issues over the previous weeks. They also pointed out some ad-serving errors, as well as firewall problems while accessing Mighty Optical Illusions headquarters. Would you be so kind to share your experience? Is the site fully operational for everyone? What kind of problems (if any) have you experienced over the last few days? I’m eager to know! I need as much information possible, so I can fix the issue, provided it actually exists…
Last week I added some slight modifications to speedup the site loading times. I think it’s fully operational for everyone, but can’t know for sure without my fans sharing their view…
(31 votes)By Vurdlak on March 20, 2010, with 32 Comments
Got this incredible photo from one of our loyal visitors. Then I made a cropped version of it to strengthen the effect. Just look at the small thumbnail on your right. How easy it is to decide whether the doll-like hanger is convex or concave (embossed or embedded)? There should be no mistake if we decide it’s concave convex, right?
Unfortunately, our brain was fooled once again! This known effect has something to do with our brain processing the information of face-like objects, automatically rendering them to convex 3d models. We just can’t fight it.
Check the complete photo below! It’s almost impossible to notice where the concave part ends and (falsely presumed) convex part of the figure starts. Probably we saw so many faces during our life, it’s impossible to ignore the learned logic which constructs them 3-dimensionally in our head. Do you think kids are immune to this? How about animals?
(27 votes)By Vurdlak on March 18, 2010, with 76 Comments
Our Belgian friend Ellen spotted this new LG poster in the wild, and gracefully decided to share it with us. At first I haven’t noticed anything interesting about it, but luckily I was patient enough to read the bottom line before I ditched the photo. It says something about LG phones being able to detect up to 16 faces in one shot. Then I inspected the little phone icon, and noticed there are at least 16 hidden faces present in this perspective! Boy was I surprised! Apart from 5 obvious people and a picture on the wall, try and spot as many hidden faces you can. I’ll start by pointing out the branches in the window. Could it be a reference to our widgets icon? The one we borrowed from Sandra Bullock’s Premonition? I’ll let you find the other ones… Be sure to open the picture in full-size, and then you can check the little phone icon in the footer when you’re stuck! Please, no more than one answer per comment, so other can have some fun too…
You can open this image in full size to see all the hidden stuff...
(33 votes)By Vurdlak on March 17, 2010, with 38 Comments
I know, I know… we already had bunch of similar “Caught in The Moment” type of optical illusions. Still, I can’t resist posting them. What I like most about this stuff, is the circumstances these photos were taken at. There was no intention to create an optical illusion, yet the results speak for themselves. The other two photos I included are just a funny coincidence. But the chewed-up Headless Gymnasts one is really awesome. Which one is your favorite? Should I stop posting these? Looking forward to hear your feedback!
(47 votes)
