We have one of these little dragons in our living room.
Here's the page with instructions on how to make your own. Hint: Use stiff paper!
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« Do verbal metaphors affect what we see? | Main | PLoS Medicine tests out spam drug merchants »
Magic dragon illusion video and how-to
Category: Fun and games
Posted on: September 18, 2007 2:44 PM, by Dave Munger
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Comments
That is so bizarre, I wonder how it works? I'll have to print out the PDF and try it myself.
Posted by: Homie Bear | September 18, 2007 3:54 PM
I've had one of those little guys on my dresser for a while. The illusion as presented by the camera is stunning; in reality it looks considerably more like a strangely-folded concave dragon, and none of my guests ever seem to see the illusion.
I wonder if the poor performance of my dragon is a result of the lighting conditions of my room. Or if I should print out a much larger one.
In the end, I am still far more impressed by the innate sense of wrongness I feel walking past art by or similar to that by Patrick Hughes, which really must be seen in 3D.
Posted by: Uriel K | September 18, 2007 4:08 PM
I've had one of those on the divider above my cubicle - it's fun watching people with one eye closed weaving from side to side while they watch the dragon's head watch them!
I'm easily amused, though.
did
Posted by: did | September 18, 2007 4:13 PM
Very interesting! I think I'll give it a try.
Posted by: Fernando | September 18, 2007 5:03 PM
I just gave it a go and it doesn't seem to work as well as the video - though every now and then it seems to look "right". probably just the lighting.
Posted by: pyko | September 18, 2007 11:17 PM
I placed one of these dragons in my dorm room a couple of years ago. Oddly enough, only about half of those who got to see it could pick up on the 3D effect (though this rose to about 3/4 when I told them to close one eye; apparently parallax was causing a problem when viewed too closely).
Aside from the exorbitant compression-for-web, the reason it looks so convincing in the video is because the dragon is placed in front of a window. The soft light entering from the back side uniformly lights the paper through to the front, eliminating the dark corners caused by the inverse folds.
I think I'll make another for my apartment this year, but this time put it on a windowsill.
Posted by: Alvin | September 19, 2007 3:32 AM
To Uriel K
You can simulate the illusion in reality by looking at the dragon with only one eye. This might work for your guests. I think it's because the binocular view of two eyes can tell the depth of the figure, ruining the illusion. However, this doesn't happen with cameras.
Posted by: Freiddie | September 19, 2007 5:05 AM
I just tried this and the commenters are right who say that you need to have one eye closed for the illusion to work (in fact, the PDF file explictly says this).
I still didn't see it at first, but I think that's because I was still perceiving the face as hollow. If you can persuade your brain that the snout is pointing towards you, not away, then the illusion follows, and (IMHO) it's every bit as impressive as in the video.
Incidentally, the instructions tell you to view it from 2 feet away, but I find this isn't critical; I still get the effect from 4 to 5 feet away.
This is definitely one I'm taking home for my 11-year-old daughter, who loves such stuff. Thanks for posting it!
Posted by: noncarborundum | September 19, 2007 4:11 PM
This optical illusion is pretty awesome. They have a face like this at the Exploratorium in San Francisco.
Posted by: Sammy | September 20, 2007 3:57 AM
There is also a large house sculpture designed by Roy Lichtenstein with the same principle in the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden in DC. I had a fun time siting at a park bench nearby and watching people walk along the sidewalk past it. Nearly every person who walked past, whether they were paying attention to it or not would freeze, look confused at it and then walk back and forth a few times. It's not perfect since the house appears tilted upwards on flat ground, but since it's so big, the illusion is very strong with both eyes.
http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pimage?108118+0+0
Posted by: metzgerm | September 21, 2007 8:23 PM
yay! i saw it last night - and indeed it is much easier if you close one eye, the illusion just "pops out". I find if you look at it at eye level and start with the angle where you can see it's ears clearly then convince yourself that the snout is pointing out then the rest of the illusion will follow.
The real thing is much better than the video i feel. this is quite fun/freaky - when you can see the illusion, try and keep it there and use ur finger to touch the snout :)
Also i find if you do want to see the illusion with both eyes, its harder (but possible) just take a step back and try not to think too hard about it.
Posted by: pyko | September 22, 2007 10:11 PM
It really does work very well provided that you are far enough away from it. It also helps to put it in a slight shady spot.
Posted by: Trakgalvis | September 25, 2007 9:44 AM