I would have mentioned this earlier, but the excellent Illusion Sciences blog went over its Google Pages hosting quota, so I couldn’t snag myself a copy of the SWF file to host on my own site.
Now the blog’s back, so here it is:
Brilliant, huh?
More info at Illusion Sciences.
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This blog is now located at howtospotapsychopath.com!
Optical Illuuuuuusion!
Brilliant.
Comment by dr_w00t — December 18, 2008 @ 12:56 pm
It should be noted that (while cool) something on that site (http://www.illusionsciences.com/) ate my Opera browser twice.
Opera users (yes, all 6 of us) should probably just open it in Firefox (which didn't die).
Comment by j — December 18, 2008 @ 2:42 pm
On the topic of Illusions, my favourite genre is Anamorphosis. My favourite examples are the works of artist Felice Varini:
http://www.varini.org/02indc/indgen.html
The site is in french, but don't let that put you off - you may need to click on the "hors point de vue" link if you want to see the work from another point of view.
Comment by kamikrae-z — December 18, 2008 @ 2:49 pm
Weeeeeeeeeeird.
Comment by FuzzyPlushroom — December 18, 2008 @ 3:20 pm
I can't believe someone gets to make this stuff professionally. Best Job Evar!
Comment by Stuart — December 18, 2008 @ 5:39 pm
@ j:
Worked perfectly well in my Opera browser. Perhaps your Flash needs updating.
Comment by Bedlam — December 18, 2008 @ 7:18 pm
Gaah, my brain is broken!
Comment by TwoHedWlf — December 18, 2008 @ 8:32 pm
In addition to what the description says, I seem to see both rotating clockwise at what appears to be a much higher framerate if I look at them on the edge of my field of vision. (they look a bit jerky if I stare at either dot).
Comment by evilspoons — December 19, 2008 @ 1:34 am
No matter which I look at, I see both rings spinning counter-clockwise. 90% of these illusions don't do what they're "supposed" to do for me.
Comment by Dustin — December 19, 2008 @ 5:55 am
Hmm, I just switched to Internet Explorer and the flash had a green background....and the illusion worked.
Comment by Dustin — December 19, 2008 @ 5:56 am
That .swf file is death. It causes Maxthon to chew up 50% of available core and become slower than anything. I blocked it, because otherwise I couldn't look at the blog without disabling flash. Something is wrong with it.
Comment by Red October — December 21, 2008 @ 5:15 pm
@Bedlam:
I suspect it has more to do with my crummy work PC than Opera, but it should be noted that FF handled the page okay.
I think the lesson we can take away from this is that Flash (and Shockwave) needs to die a horrible, horrible death. As soon as possible.
Comment by j — December 22, 2008 @ 9:45 am
Yes, the current version of Flash on Windows - and I presume also Mac OS, because Flash for Mac OS always sucks worse than Flash for the PC - will peg one processor core when that Flash animation is running. This is a fairly common symptom, for what it's worth.
If you've got more than one processor core, though, you probably won't even notice, if at least you've got a desktop PC. (A laptop may suddenly start making more fan noise than usual.)
Comment by Daniel Rutter — December 22, 2008 @ 1:02 pm
Hmmm... Each pentagon of circular windows rotates counterclockwise, but I'm having real trouble making out for sure whether the black and white bars that you see through them are stationary or rotating clockwise. In any event, I'm pretty sure the described illusion wouldn't work without those black and white bars, i.e., if the circular windows just showed you another color or a polka-dot pattern or something.
Comment by Jonadab — December 26, 2008 @ 11:30 pm