Optical Illusion

[mattlistener]

Given the kind of kid I was, I've laid eyes on and visually played around with all of the classic optical illusions. This one I just saw for the first time, and is by far the best apparent motion illusion I've ever encountered.

Make your window as big as it gets and follow the cut.



You can make the apparent motion stop by staring at one spot for a few seconds, or by being too far away, or by moving the screen around in front of you instead of moving your eyes around the screen.

I notice that the apparent motion is always in the blue-leading direction, so it's got to be due to something about color perception. Any care to propose an explanation?

Comments

[pressburger.livejournal.com]

I think it's the aliens.

[angelovernh.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's a good one! Thanks!

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

Oh my.

(Imagine that as wallpaper!)

humph...

[cthulhia]

I posted this months ago.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/cthulhia/372964.html

Re: humph...

[mattlistener.livejournal.com]

Ah! I wouldn't have posted it as-if-new-to-local-world if I'd seen it in your journal. Sometimes I get enough behind that my friends list won't go back far enough to catch up, so I imagine that post fell in one of those gaps.

Re: humph...

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

Ah, I saw that entry, but I rarely follow links.

[volta]

I am quite willing to believe it has something to do with color perception, as the image does not appear to me to be moving at all. All I see are grey blobs arranged in concentric circles, unless I really focus on it; then I can see the yellow and blue spots in the blobs, but still no motion.

[mattlistener.livejournal.com]

Interesting! Also interesting that you can see yellow and blue spots if you concentrate on them -- is that usual with your kind of color-blindness? Do you have the missing function right at your center of focus?

[dalek.livejournal.com]

I played with this using Apple's wonderful Universal Access system preferences. Changing the display to black and white and zooming in made no difference to the effect. Nor did inverting the display. However if I boosted the contrast in black & white mode so that the ovals disappeared into the white and black areas of the display the effect disappeared and all motion stopped.

I wonder if you (Volta) don't see the motion because the ovals are not as apparent?