Optical Illusions

Illusions page.. YES! ..here are the best optical illusions I managed to gather from the net ...google is my friend yes.. Found some good ones on www.illusionworks.com ...t'was a comprehensive site on such things, too bad it's gone now.. go ahead and press. I am so proud I snatched them before it disappeared .

To view them look for links to the right ..the ones marked with the are the ones that I like the most. Some have .. those are really nice. Just click on the stars.

In Art

? Ambigous

An old man BUT... there is something else "hidden" into this one (it's very hard to see...... if you can't figure it out email me for the answer)

Look carefully at this picture created by the great dutch artist Verbeek. Then click on it for an upside down surprise!

viewA young lady but look carefully and you'll find out that she's really old :)... try to figure them out

viewAnother young/old lady.. the change occurs when you flip the image

viewThere are 9 people in this image.. can you find them?

viewAnother of them two in one pictures: face/singer (this one is very easy)

Is it an eye?.. no... it's a bird. (by ReNdall)

© Great artwork from M. C. Escher himself

view"Another World" by M. C. Escher

view"Belvedere" by M. C. Escher

view"House of Stairs" by M. C. Escher

"Up and Down" by M. C. Escher

view"Waterfall" by M. C. Escher

Distortion Illusions - distortion of an image's size, shape and color

// Shape

After you stare in the middle of the spinning disks (~30sec.), look away from the monitor wherever you want and you'll notice a wave effect on the surrounding objects. (zip file)

viewDo the vertical lines appear to b/back and forth?

The Café Wall Illusion: Parallel lines that, with the help of some black and white squares, seem at different angles (link to a site with a great aplet)

viewAnother illusion with parallel lines that seem at different angles

viewSquares that seem to tilt left or right

Squares that seem to have curved edges

viewThe Fraser spiral: the overlapping black arc segments appear to form a spiral; however, the arcs are really a series of overlapping concentric circles. Covering half the figure will cause the illusion to be reduced (global perception is needed to cause the overall effect).

The Poggendorff illusion... you have the illusion that the top line crosses the rectangle

view"Concave" parallels

view"Convex" parallels

viewStraight lines that seem curve

viewDisorted circle

viewSee how the verical lines appear to be blacker and forming a shape

viewAbout the same but with a circle.. see how it creates a depth illusion

viewLines displayed in crosshair style give the impression of circles

.* Size

The breathing square. Click to enter the page with the details

viewTwo identical circles seem different in size

viewThe two diagonals seem to have differnt lenghts...but measure... they're the same

viewIllusion caused by the perspective...in fact the lines are identical

viewWhich one of these two lines is bigger?

viewSimilar illusion but with 2 shapes.

# Color

viewFor starters here is an illusion made by me after I have seen a web page with these colors (I know... horrid combination)

Shadow Illusion: click to open the page with the details (this is a nice one)

viewThe chromatic adaptation mechanism: Nice illusion exploiting the eye's adaptation to colors

viewOpponent After-images: Just stare and you'll see :)

viewIn this picture there are only 3 colors present... though you see 4

Move your eyes around it. Do the dots at the intersection appear to scintillate?

viewBased on the same illusion, grey squares appear at the intersection of the lines black

Impossible Objects

Everstairs- stairs that you can climb forever and still /up at the begining, created by Swedish artist Oscar Reutersvard, the "father of impossible figures"

view"Impossible Window I" by the same Oscar Reutersvard

view"Impossible Triangle with a Twist" by Oscar Reutersvard

viewImpossible triangle "invented" by Roger Penrose

viewImpossible figure (a trident of some sort)

viewImpossible cube

viewImpossible stack of domino-like pieces

viewImpossible elephant - not quite an object but..