Can you see dark blotches on the white 'junctions' in between the corners of these black squares?
Which semicircle is brighter - the left or the right half?
One of the most famous optical illusions, reproduced in colour!
What line is longer; from a to b, or from b to c?
Amazingly, they're both the same length. This is perhaps the most extreme example of I have found that distorts perception of length.
Also created by Akiyoshi, the lines in this picture below are completely parallel would you believe?
This amazing illusion to the right was created by Akiyoshi Kitaoka. It already looks quite 'wavy', but try slowly moving the mouse cursor up and down the center of the image - and focus on the cursor. You should see the picture 'waving' in an incredible way.
At first, there doesn't seem anything unusual about this picture. I mean, it's just a bunch of diagonal lines and a slightly distorted square in the middle - right? Wrong. Believe it or not, the 4 lines that make up the square are actually perfectly straight. In fact it /is/ a perfect square. For proof of this, the animation will swap between the two frames so you can see the square remains the same. Also check by loading the pic into your favourite art package.
Rotating dot whirlpool Wow! Try staring at this for more than 5 seconds without going crazy. Then try following it round! =) Curves constantly die out and then re-evolve as part of another curve.
Is the following object physically possible?
Which line connects to line C? A or B?
Look at the grouping of stairs below. How can they keep climbing?
Is this knot pairing of triangles physically possible?
Despite their appearance, the top lines on each of these trapezoids is the exact same size!
Can you figure out what this is a picture of?
Answer:Cows Head
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The gear wheels should appear to SLOWLY rotate. The one on the left side of the screen should turn clockwise and the one on the right side of the screen should turn counterclockwise.
The green is identical throughout this illusion.
Drawing appears oblique but all the small squares have same size
Robots Appear to Dance
Impossible Construction
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Cubes Appear to be Deformed
The image appears to move backward and forward
Look at the two circles below. Would you believe they are the same color?
Does this scene look real to you? It is painting.
In this classic optical illusion picture, palm trees appear to turn into camels.
These three identical cars appear to be three different sizes. Would you believe that they are all the same size? Try measuring them to make sure.
This image makes it appear that the VW Beetles are being pulled inward
Does this lucky clover appear to be in motion?
How is this Lego creation possible? These types of illusions can be created in real life it's all about the angle.
In this optical illusion, if you follow the movement of the rotating pink dot with your eyes, the dots will remain only one color, pink. However, if you stare at the black + in the center, the moving dot will turn green. Keep concentrating on the black + in the center of the picture. After a short period, all the pink dots will slowly disappear and you will only see a single green dot moving in a circle.
The following are common tests used to detect color blindness. Can you read the numbers hidden in each square? You should see 58 (upper left), 18 (upper right), E (lower left) and 17 (lower right). If you cannot see any of the above numbers/letters, you may suffer from color blindness.
Mach Band Effect
The what? The Machband describes an effect where the human mind subconsciously increases the contrast between two surfaces with different luminance. It can be seen on the index page of this website. The luminance of the squares above increases in a stepwise fashion. However although the luminance within each block is constant the apparent lightness of each strip seems to vary across its length. Close to the left edge of the strip it appears lighter than at the centre, and close to the right edge of the strip it appears darker than at the centre. The visual system is exaggerating the difference in luminance (contrast) at each edge in order top detect it. Try holding a pencil over an edge in this image and see how the apparent difference in lightness of two adjacent strips changes. They become much harder to tell apart. The edge detection is working to enhance object separation. Mach banding is caused by lateral inhibition of the receptors in the eye. As receptors receive light they draw light-sensitive chemical compounds from adjacent regions, thus inhibiting the response of receptors in those regions. Receptors directly on the lighter side of the boundary can pull in unused chemicals from the darker side, and thus produce a stronger response. Receptors on the on the darker side of the boundary, however, produce a weaker effect because of that same migration.
Mach bands are an optical illusion named after Ernst Mach consisting of an image of two wide bands, one light and one dark, separated by a narrow strip with a light-to-dark gradient. Humans perceive two narrow bands of different brightness on either side of the gradient that are not present in the original image. The effect is like that of a spatial high-boost filter
The illusion is usually supposed to be caused by lateral inhibition of the receptors in the eye. According to lateral inhibition, given that the gradient is horizontally oriented, the brain interprets the image as a collection of vertical lines. Every stripe has a value but the brain calculates the contrast of a stripe in relation to neighbor stripes. Stripes at the edges of the gradient have less lateral inhibition than the stripes in the uniform area so they appear as if they are brighter or darker than their real value.
Match Bands
Illusory Mach Bands result when gradients from darker to lighter shades are created. The thin light and dark bands are illusory.
Below the effect is doubled
Match Bands
Mach Bands also occur with a related circular effect.
Notice the the slight glow that extends. Addition a second gradient enhances the effect and almost seems to produce an entire glowing area..
Addition of a third gradient produces an even stronger effect.
Now the glow is striking and the center yellow seems much brighter that the yellow in each corner. Also, there is a difuse but strong subjective contour effect
Match Bands
Move closer to and further from the screen while looking at the center of the figure. There is a change in apparent brightness. This effect is covered in more detail in the section on Dynamic Luminance.
