Funny Unparalleled Parallel Lines

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.

19 Replies to “Funny Unparalleled Parallel Lines”

  1. This is a crazy, stunning effect. I can’t look too long or I start to feel nauseous.

    What about the animals from the last illusion?

  2. These are some nice new versions of this type of optical illusion!:) on my iGoogle the thumbnail one looked cool because the ends looke closer together/farther away (depending on which line) to each other when actually they’re the same

    I really like the yellow and black one though… it really does look like theres a rotated square in there! … using my mouse or horizontal scrollbar to assure me its straight:P

  3. the second 1 looks kinda like its not right, like some little kid cut it out and it looks slanted. the first 1 looks great 4 a bedroom wall paper! scroll down the page from the top really fast while looking at the second one. it looks cool!

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