1) Same Color Illusion.
copyright: Edward H Adelson and web.mit.edu
copyright: Edward H. Adelson and web.mit.edu
2) Blue or Green?
Copyright Akiyoshi Kitaoka
You know what's coming. But you can't believe it, can you? The spirals that are clearly blue and green are actually neither blue nor green, but a combination (RGB=0,255,150). i.e. they are EXACTLY the same color. unbelievable? I know. This one actually makes one forget the first illusion entirely. I mean, it was difficult to believe that one, but surely this is simply impossible? Well, copy it to paint/photoshop and see the RGB values. Or, just crop some pixels from the blue and green spirals without their pink/orange context and juxtapose them. Or, if you don't really have to do it yourself to believe it, just head on to this article at the badastronomy blog and see for yourself. This really is stunning.
3) Ok, this one is fun. Look at this one. Which direction is the (apparently nude, but I digress... ) spinning? Clockwise? Counter-clockwise?
No idea about copyright, but I found it here. Anyway, once you know your initial answer, look again. Perhaps looking at the shadow of the feet will do it the first time. The spinning direction flips instantly! It is actually much easier to flip the interpretation in your mind after you succeed in seeing it once. I can do it within 5-10 seconds now, and yet it is such a rush everytime it happens! :) Specially when I focus on her face. Suddenly the hair jumps from front to the back. :) I think this is essentially the same thing as flipping the 3-D interpretation of the Necker Cube in your mind. But, somehow this spinning girl makes it much more fun! :)
4) And now, the killer. Hollow mask illusion. I don't need to say anything as they say it all in the video.
Incredible, no? I have always wanted to have one of these masks at home. Specially this next one, with einstein. But it is definitely not worth 60 dollars....
Do you have any favorite illusions? Do share in comments.
Wowwwwwwwwww!!! Amazing.... :) love the first two anyway...but the mask one is totally cool!!
ReplyDeleteBut I need more practice with the lady :P
this one is nice too: http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/mot_feet_lin/index.html
reading posts after a gap of almost 3 weeks.... was vacationing till last weekend and working since then.. :)..
ReplyDeletecool series of illusions.....
I think some of these illusions are good only on screen. if you see them in front of you, you will instantly come to know the trick.... "gravity defying ramp" is best such example....
about masks, I am not sure if the effect will be so appalling if we see it in front of us. we can judge the depth of real mask but not on screen, hence i believe its only effective in video. If its been so effective we would have learnt it during birthday parties and holi celebrations in our childhood itself.
Blue-Green spiral was really mind blowing..... colour is not only the colour, its colour + surrounding....
I'm not sure if I agree... certainly some illusions work with lack of depth cues (necker cube is obviously one such, as is that spinning girl thing), but I'm not sure that's true for either the gravity defying ramp or the mask illusion. Specially the mask illusion. the reason we never see it at b'day parties etc is because we hardly ever have a realistic mask in those situations. It is important for this illusion to work that the concave side is exact offset of the convex side, and that the convex side is a highly realistic human face, with a fully formed nose etc.. the effect probably also requires a directional source of light. i.e. for a translucent mask a strong source behind the mask, and for an opaque mask a strong source on our side. i think the shadows are important to give the depth cues which make the face realistic, and fools the brain.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, blue green thing is absolutely incredible. A friend was talking to me today and he insisted that they are cheating. that "the borders of blue and green regions are of different colors". and he didn't mean the orange and pink, he actually thought that the regions inside the blue and green regions were themselves not of the same color. it took me some time and a lot of zooming in to convince him that there is no "cheating" involved. The only thing cheating us is our visual system. :)
Oh, and, the idea is not that we can't figure out the trick. an illusion doesn't have to fool us (though the best ones often do). If we "feel" that we can see something happening even though we can recognize the "trick", it is still an illusion after all. What matters is the perception, not the explicability of it.
ReplyDeleteHaving said all that, it might turn out that you are right. :D I should find out if they have one of these things in a science museum close by. Will be great to go and see them there.
ReplyDeleteChalo.. logging in after a while.. Lovely illusions!! Thanks for recording them here. Now I can just direct ppl here to check these out! :)
ReplyDelete