optical illusion
esiegel | September 22, 2013Note: This post has been updated and improved as of 2014 here, at the new Starts With A Bang blog. What follows, below, is the original version that was first published here.
"I love the sounds and the power of pounding water, whether it is the waves or a waterfall." -Mike May
The world's oceans have always been special to me, and bodies of water in general. The air smells different, the wind blows cool, and you're reminded of the power of the salty seas every time you step in. It's one of the reasons that the old sea shanties have always fascinated me. This week, have a listen to an updated…
grrlscientist | May 13, 2010tags: Optical Illusion: Impossible Motion, optical illusion, Koukichi Sugihara, Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest 2010, vision, brain, streaming video
In this video, wooden balls roll up the slopes just as if they are pulled by a magnet. The behavior of the balls seems impossible, because it is against gravity. The video is not a computer graphic, but a real scene.
What is actually happening is that the orientations of the slopes are perceived oppositely, and hence the descending motion is misinterpreted as ascending motion. This illusion is remarkable in that it is generated by a…
esiegel | February 21, 2010When you look at yourself from a universal standpoint, something inside always reminds or informs you that there are bigger and better things to worry about.
-Albert Einstein
I woke up this morning with the Sun in my face, which marks the first time all year that that's happened.
(The irony, that I'm now listening to the Grateful Dead's "Looks Like Rain.")
And after a few seconds had passed (you know, it takes me a few seconds to realize that I'm not still in my dream, trying to navigate through some bizarre hotel corridor), I realized I couldn't read the numbers on my old LED alarm clock.…
grrlscientist | August 27, 2009tags: Grabs-U, Grabula, software, technology, optical illusion, offbeat, streaming video
Wow, here's two hot new Finnish software programs for your mac that you can use to allow the world to touch you (Grab-U) and that you can use to reach out and touch the world (Grabula) -- I can hardly wait to get these for my Powerbook!
Grabs-U software demo video (allows the world to touch you):
And here's the Grabula demo (you can touch the world);
Okay, you are saying, that's just not real. Well, you're right! Neither is real, both are an optical illusion. How did they do it? This video shows how (I…
sciencepunk | March 15, 2009 In 2006, scientists discovered a 3D optical illusion that had never been reported before. Frederick Kingdom, Ali Yoonessi, and Elena Gheorghiu of McGill University noticed that when placed side-by-side, identical images of objects tilted and receding into the background appeared to have different angles.
So while one picture of the Leaning Tower of Pisa looks normal:
Put two copies of the same image next to eachother and suddenly one seems to veer off at an angle:
This effect, reported in Scientific American here, occurs because of the way that our brain constructs a three-dimensional…
esiegel | April 4, 2008Take a look at this picture, and tell me where the brightest parts and dimmest parts are:
Well, obviously, just to the left of the color gradient, it gets darker than anywhere else. Also, just to the right, it gets lighter than anywhere else. And that's the way it is, isn't it?
Or is this an optical illusion; a trick of your eyes? Let's chop the image up into three parts and find out:
Well damn, there isn't a "darker band" or a "lighter band" there at all, this is just your inability to see properly! This effect of your eyes is known as a Mach band. (Maybe that will be the new title of the…
grrlscientist | December 3, 2007tags: optical illusion, turning tables, streaming video
This optical illusion is so simple, yet so deceptive, that you should try it on your friends, and use it to win some bar bets, too [flash: 1:20]
Crazy Optical Illusion, Looks Like Magic