The Purple Nurple Optical Illusion : Omni Brain

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The Omnibrain is a psychology graduate student at an online university. He hopes that the three weeks and $29.95 that he is spending on his Ph.D. will get him a job at a Tier 1 research university. Do online universities have postdocs? Ok...just kidding, The Omnibrain is a real graduate student at a real school somewhere in the continental United States - or maybe Europe.

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The Purple Nurple Optical Illusion

Category: Art • Psychology • Vision
Posted on: December 23, 2007 8:05 AM, by The Omnibrain

I've entitled this illusion 'The Purple Nurple' Exciting eh? I haven't actually seen this particular one before today so I thought I'd throw it up.... so here it is:

I've finally figured out where the heck this illusion has come from! It is actually called "Sea Sickness" and is by Walt Anthony.

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Comments

"I haven't actually seen this particular one before today so I thought I'd throw up...."

Corrected.

Posted by: Syckls | December 23, 2007 8:57 AM

Interesting that it only works when I don't look at it. As soon as I focus on it, especially the center, it stops vibrating.

Posted by: Bob | December 23, 2007 4:51 PM

If you hold your eyes still it stops moving, but if you flick your eyes about the page, it starts up again.

Posted by: Steve | December 23, 2007 5:30 PM

I only see it shift a little when I move my focus to and from the very center. I assume it's supposed to be one of those that constantly moves?

Posted by: Andrew | December 24, 2007 7:22 AM

...that illusion is making my eyes itch. x_x

Posted by: M | December 24, 2007 4:57 PM

It only moves a little bit for me... but thats enough.

Makes me feel like a bad night in Tijauna.

Posted by: alcoolworld | December 24, 2007 5:45 PM

Er... The Purple Nurple is the name of a gay club themed area on Furrymuck :>

I cant get it to work. It looks perfectly stable to me, wherever I point my eyes and however fast or slow I move them.

Posted by: Suricou Raven | December 25, 2007 5:39 AM

Cool illusion! Interesting that it stops when eyes are fixed in the middle.
Try to circle your eyes around the outermost layer of diamonds.

Posted by: Martin | December 26, 2007 5:27 AM

About the ugliest illusion I've seen yet. The garish colors must have something to do with the minor illusion. Color fatigue? I only noticed some "movement" when I moved my eyes across an outer area, such as around the circle of diamonds.

Why not have a ranking of illusions by: 1) perceived movement, 2) aesthetics, 3) color fatigue, and 4) patterns?

Posted by: joekdoe | December 26, 2007 10:19 AM

Very cool illusion!

Posted by: Eyes for Lies | December 26, 2007 11:57 AM

Great as a desktop background.

Posted by: Brennan | December 26, 2007 2:51 PM

Posted by: Tarun | December 27, 2007 4:44 AM

I'm w/o my printer at the moment. Does it work the same color printed onto paper?

Posted by: BJ | December 30, 2007 6:13 PM

Sorry. It just sits there doing nothing. I've tried everything. Hmmmmm...

Posted by: Myqlkc | December 31, 2007 11:52 PM

If you open up your eyes wide (as if beeing extremely surprised) and look at it, it appears frozen for me.