The Neuroscience of Illusion:

[Brock Samson]

 An interesting article on optical illusions and how and why they work.  from Scientific American.
  And one from my collection.

 http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-neuroscience-of-illusion          the article:

 http://www.sciam.com/slideshow.cfm?id=the-neuroscience-of-illusion     examples:

[Ponch ®]

Oh cool...a sail boat.

[moparsons]

Always loved those things!

[Charger1970]

Is this thread for real? 

[WingCharger]

Is this thread for real? 

No. Its a .gif, which is kind of a crude animation.

[BigRed66]

Oh cool...a sail boat.

"IT'S A SCHOONER!!!" (Long live Mallrats) 

[dodgecharger-fan]

Is this thread for real? 

No. Its a .gif, which is kind of a crude animation.

but it's not an animated gif. It is a static image.

The movement is an illusion.

If you refocus your eyes to make the image blurry, all motion stops.
Play with it, you'll see. You can't do that with an animated gif.

Where's the swirly-eyed smiley?

Cool stuff, Brock. 

[Nacho-RT74]

Is this thread for real? 

No. Its a .gif, which is kind of a crude animation.

but it's not an animated gif. It is a static image.

The movement is an illusion.

If you refocus your eyes to make the image blurry, all motion stops.
Play with it, you'll see. You can't do that with an animated gif.

Where's the swirly-eyed smiley?

Cool stuff, Brock. 

if somebody wants to be sure about that, save the image as JPG and will get same ilusion, no animation on JPG files.

I have allways liked this kind of stuff, thanks for share!

I have some of those on my PC ( one of them is on that website )

[Brock Samson]

 what i really enjoy about these things is actually perceiving my mind working trying to visualize,.. things like perspective don't do it so well, but this image, like seeing red and green next to each other - make the two lobes of the brain engage in conversation about just exactly what is going on..

 for example:



 



 just what is it we are perciving here?..   

 

[moparstuart]

     flowers and a chick
 

[CHARGER_FAN]

I've got dibs on the one in the white shirt.

[mikepmcs]

White shirt for me too, and the mallrats comments....mint!
you can stop any one of those eye tricks by just staring at one.  Unless you have an eye stagmus issue, then you're screwed(or just cover one eye).

[Brock Samson]

here's a good one...

 http://www.joe-ks.com/archives_aug2006/RotatingIllusion.htm   

 

[dkn1997]

holy crap!!!

[41husk]

Those are very cool I used to have a book full of those in my classroom, kept kids occupied for hours on end.

[Brock Samson]

if you like these here's a site to paruse...  http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/index.html

 

 is she spinning clockwise or counter clockwise?... are you sure?...

 and,..

  is this girl actually in the pool?...

 

[mikepmcs]

The girl is spinning both cw and ccw it keeps switching every so often.

and the girl in the pool who gives a crap!

[PocketThunder]

  is this girl actually in the pool?...

 

What are you trying to do to us!         

[Brock Samson]

 

What makes something look glossy? At first, it doesn't seem like a difficult question -- it's something smooth and reflective. But if you were to attempt to draw something that looked glossy, how would you to it? Now, the problem suddenly gets a lot more difficult.

  http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2008/06/new_insight_into_what_makes_th.php

 plus a bonus illusion..

[Brock Samson]

 Through five psychological experiments, Andrew Elliot, professor of psychology, and Daniela Niesta, post-doctoral researcher, demonstrate that the color red makes men feel more amorous toward women. And men are unaware of the role the color plays in their attraction.




http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081028074323.htm