The Optical Series 8 Optical Illusions
Optical illusions work by using color, light, and patterns to create cool images that are designed to confuse the brain. They occur because our mind is trying to interpret what our eyes see, thereby creating a perception that doesn’t match the real image in front of us.
Back in 2015, the nation—nay THE WORLD—came together to furiously debate the color of a dress. Is it blue and black or white and gold? You might say that it's blue and black, but only about half the internet would agree.
As it turns out, even scientists were befuddled about why people were seeing two completely different things. Overall, though, this controversy shed some light on a fundamental truth: Your brain sucks. All our brains suck. While our brains are capable of some amazing feats, they're not nearly as infallible as we like to think.
Our brains filter a constant tsunami of stimuli and piece the important parts together to recreate what we know as reality. And they do all this in damn-near real time—which is really impressive if you think about it. But here's the thing: a big chunk of what we consider "reality" actually consists of our brains making guestimates.
We know this because researchers have devised ways to consistently fool our brains into seeing things they're not really seeing. These little reality busters are known as optical illusions.
Just think about the last movie or TV show you watched. As much as you might have been affected by the story, you weren't really watching those events taking place. Your gullible brain was presented with a rapid series of static images, which fooled it into thinking it was watching an event. This little trick is known as the pi phenomenon.
We don't think of TV as an illusion, but that's just because it's common. However, the truth of the matter is it's just Hollywood taking advantage of our easily tricked skull mush. While our brains are complex, beautiful machines that help us manoeuvrefairly successfully through a big complicated world, they are far from perfect. Check out these optical illusions that prove just how much our brains really, truly suck sometimes.
Distorted Grid
This would be a perfectly nice grid, except it's all crazy and disjointed on the sides. If only there was a way to fix it! There is! Sort of! If you stare at the center of the grid, the crazy peripheries begin to fix themselves. It is thought that the brain has a bias towards order and regular patterns and will actually go about "fixing" the problems on the sides.
Squares and Circles
Check out the pattern. What do you see? A bunch of lines and boxes, right? Well, believe it or not, there are actually sixteen circles hiding in this eye trick. We know, it sounds crazy. It’s called the Coffer Illusion, and it was a finalist in the 2006 Best Optical Illusion Picture of the Year contest. It was created by Anthony Norcia, and it’s called the Coffer Illusion image because Coffer is an architectural term used to refer to a series of sunken panels in various shapes.
If you concentrate on the vertical lines at the sides of the squares, the circles will pop out at you. Do you see them now?
Moving Snakes
This image is not animated. Don't believe me? Try staring at just one part of the image and you'll see it will stop moving. This is an example of a "peripheral drift illusion." It is thought that this illusion occurs because of the slight differences in time it takes to process different luminances (how intense the light is from a particular area). This slight lag in mental processing tricks the brain into perceiving movement that isn't really there.
These snakes appear to be moving from side to side. If you look at one, it appears to stop moving, its only when you look around the picture that they appear to move.
Orange Dots
Yep, your brain sucks again. The orange circles are exactly the same. This is known as the Ebbinghaus illusion. It is theorized that the two main visual contributors to this illusion are the difference in the distance between the outer ring and inner circles as well as the completeness of the ring surrounding the "smaller" circle.
Spiral Illusion
What a good-looking spiral, alrirght? I guess nothing more to discuss here… unless… no, wait a minute. Run your finger along the spiral and see if you can run the length of it. Something seems off here.
This is the Fraser spiral illusion. Despite what your eyes tell you, the spiral is actually a series of concentric circles. The background pattern makes the picture so confusing that your brain just fills in information that isn't really there.
Moving Grey Block
The inner Square, (yes it is a square) seems to be moving constantly, but it is stationary and it is just your perception that makes it look as if it is constantly moving.
Different colour hearts
These 2 hearts are different colours, or are they?. Believe it or not, they are exactly the same colour. It’s the lines that pass through them which creates this affect.
Golden balls
Here are 2 pictures of golden balls, the balls are exactly the same colour, it’s the coloured lines passing through them that creates this illusion.
Bulging Sphere in chequered pattern
The blocks appear to be bulging out, but in fact that’s only an illusion, as they are all straight and it’s the placement of the black and white squares inside the bigger squares that create this illusion. The lines between the squares are actually straight
Tilted letters of the Open Sign
These Letters appear to be tilted, whereas they are actually straight. It’s the tilted lines within the letters that create this illusion of tilting.
Ladies Face Illusion
Look closely, and you might notice this picture is made up of 2 prancing Horses. Do you see them?
Cat up or Down the stairs
Look at this one for a while, It is drawn in a way that your brain will switch from seeing the cat coming down the stairs, and then it will sometimes look as if the cat is coming up the stairs. Can you see it switching?
Man with Huge Beard Illusion
This is a Pohotographic illusion This is created by where the girl is standing in front of the man with the same colour clothing, and putting her arms out of view behind him. Photographic illusions often happen by chance, depending on the position of the elements making up the picture.
Sitting or Lying down in the street.
Here is another Photographic illusion. This man sitting up reading, or is he lying in the road. The illusion is created by the 2 people behind him. Tilt your phone or head 90 Degrees anticlockwise, and then he appears to be lying in the road.
The two footballers
This illusion is created by the way his hand has been cleverly painted. At first glance it looks like 2 soccer players.
Two grey Blocks
This is one you simply cannot believe. These 2 blocks are the same colour although the lower one looks lighter This effect is achieved by creating a shadow on the top block at the dividing line, and a brighter Section on the top of the bottom block at the dividing line. To see this effect, and be amazed, simply hold your finger over the dividing line between the blocks and you will see they are the same colour intensity.
I hope you enjoyed these Optical Illusions, and now you might realize that all is not actually what it seems.