Optical IllusionsCuriosities and Visual Effects |
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What earthquakes can do!
The photo shows my daughter 1998 in San Francisco (No photomontage!) The steep streets of San Francisco make for great optical illusive photos. Check out the Explanation link and see the angle of the car on the road. If you don't park correctly on these streets you could easily junk your car, or junk my car. However, if you do park correctly you can create your own optical illusive photos.  Explanation to the photo
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Model: Janis Purucker |
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These trees are as obliquely
as the houses above, but with trees it isn't so strange, because maybe the wind did... |
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Everyday many photographers in Pisa, Tuscany are wallowing in the grass and normal people perform contortions to look like a giant who prevent the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling down. |
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| Photos: Janis und Erwin Purucker |
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The Egypts are wondering:
Such a big sand pyramid built by two and a half people in one hour! (No photomontage!) Explanation
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The real pyramids of Egypt
you can see here on my Website Egypt - Photos and Informations |
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| Photo: Tobias Zitzlsberger, Sebastian Stochniol |
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This picture shows the inner side of the watch tower
on the mountain Great Kornberg, part of the chain of mountains Fichtelgebirge. Of course it's no photomontage, too. The only manipulation I did was removing the handrails. At a quick view one could think, the left staircase leads upstairs, but then the way is blocked. Assuming the photographer stood upside and took the photo downwards, the left stairs would also go downwards, this wood be a more meaningful result. As soon as the webpage has loaded fully, you can cross with your mouse over the picture and by appearing the handrails you can see that this was thoroughly wrong, too. |
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If I get the one,
who tore my picture... ! |
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Idea:
From the book Incredible Optical Illusions by Nigel Rodgers |
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Look at the dot in the center and
move your head backwards and forwards! |
This picture I received from
Leonid Korezkij
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A similar pic, where you only have to move your eyes I received from
Leonid Korezkij
Many of these pictures you can find at Akiyoshi Kitaoka's website who probably is the originator. The effect arises through unconscious small movements of your eyes which everybody makes everytime, in connection with the asymmetric colour differences of the small elements. |
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Please wait until the spirals are moving. With some Browsers they'll
do it only as soon as the whole page was loaded.
Look at the center of the rotating spirals for at least 20 seconds and then at any other object e.g. the back of your hand and you will see this object bending and squirming for some seconds. Our eyes don't deliver the pictures itself to our brain. They process all pictures and deliver to the brain only what they "think" to be right and important. They try to compensate the turning and it takes some time until they recognize that movement has stopped. Therefore the direction of movement when you look away is inverse to the original. This Motion After Effect or Moving After Illusion was desribed first by R. Addams as Waterfall Effect because he stared at a waterfall and then at a different point. |
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Look at the four dots in the center of the circle
for about 30 seconds.
Then close your eyes and tilt your head back. You'll see the circle - keep your eyes closed! Some seconds later you will see something in the circle... I received this drawing from Eris Jones Don't work? Different instructions say: After looking for 30 seconds and closing your eyes, turn your head and open your eyes, looking at a white surface. Possibly try winking your eyes. |
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The following in the true sense of the word is no optical illusion
but a demonstration of the
"blind spot"
in our eyes.
The place where the optic nerve enters the retina is blind.
In the right eye the spot lies right side in the field of vision
in the left eye left side. At this place normally we use the
information of the other eye or, if this is closed, the eye and
the brain fill the area unobtrusive with the colours around.
Now please close your left eye and look at the "o". The "x" you can still see in your field of vision. Now please vary the distance to your computer screen. At a certain distance the "x" disappears (don't move your look away from the "o" and notice the "x" only within your field of vision!). With your left eye it will work analogous sides exchanged. |
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Look at the dot in the middle...
(Bow near to the screen) ...after a while the grey disappears!
This picture I received from
Chris Doering
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A Skull?
Touch it with the mouse (not klicking), and you will see what it is. Without JavaScript please click on it. I received this picture from Jan Ruoff |
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Similar
pictures I received from: |
Patrick Mackaaij
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Patrick Mackaaij
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Leonid Korezkij
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Vishal Grover
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Patrick Mackaaij
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What's on a man's mind?
The drawing shows Sigmund Freud, who studied this in detail. Apparently this study has effects on his features!
I received this drawing from
Christian Bösch
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This picture I received from Patrick Mackaaij |
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Freud would enjoy
the picture at the right I hardly could imagine that children allegedly can see here only Dolphins! Many e-mails confirmed: In present time even young children at first see the lovers. Maybe this was different hundred years ago!
This picture I received from
Jill Nippe
Thanks to Roman Kriesten who told me the name of the artist: Sandro Del Prete
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The coloured parts are exactly the same.
If you cut them out and arrange them in these two different ways,
there remains a hole at one arrangement!
How can this be?!
I received this drawing from Timo M. (E-Mail known by author)
Actual drawing: Erwin Purucker |
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Unbelievable: The fields A and B have the same colour in the picture!
The eyes interpret the shadow and tell us that the real colour must be lighter. If you don't believe it you can start an animation with the button and you'll see.
Hendrik
told me about this effect.
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The following in precise is also not an optical illusion but a
demonstration of the conflict between the right and the left
half of your brain:
Look at the text and read the colours, not the words!
The right half of the brain tries to say the colours, the left half insists on reading the text. The phenomenon is called Stroop-Interference or Stroop-Effect according to J. Ridley Stroop, who used it in 1935 to scale the interference pitch of the Colour-Word-Interference. |
YELLOW
BLUE
ORANGE
BLACK RED GREEN PURPLE YELLOW RED ORANGE GREEN BLACK BLUE RED PURPLE GREEN BLUE ORANGE |
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Again no optical illusion in precise,
but I couldn't go without that joke: Counterfeit 2-Euro-Coins circulating! Warning: If you are totally prudish, please don't click! 
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How many black dots
can you see? Solving: 
This effect is a development of the Hermann Grid by Ludimar Hermann (1838 - 1914) or Hering-Grid by Ewald Hering (1834 - 1918). Actually it is called Scintillation Grid by Jim R. Bergen. Elke and Bernd Lingelbach, and Michael Schrauf told me this.
(Described by Walter H. Ehrenstein jr. and Bernd Lingelbach
in the magazine "Physik in unserer Zeit" Nr. 6/2002) |
| Das Bild erhielt ich von Rico |
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Please stare half a minute at the red dot
in the center of the US flag, then at the red dot in the center of the white surface under it. After a few seconds you'll see the original colors. Cyan and yellow are the complementary colors of red and blue. The eyes are surfeited with first ones, so that you see the others at the white rectangel.
Die Grafik erhielt ich von
Slavko Brkic.
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Slanting or Upright?Of course all of these figures are not as slanting as it looks like!
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received from
Felix Kehl
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received from
Patrick Mackaaij
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Spiral or concentric circles?
Have a sharp eye, it's different as the first look! |
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Two faces... or only one... ?
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Upside-Downs
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old - young - old ...
Please wait until the picture is moving. With some Browsers it'll do it only as soon as the whole page was loaded. |
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This island with the
"Old Man Muffaroo"
is one picture of a double-sided
cartoon by
Gustave Verbeek.
If you turn it upside down you can see a gigantic bird with "Little Lady Lovekins" in its neb. There are three possibilities: Eihter you turn your monitor upside down or you make a hand-stand or you click here to see it automatically (88 kB). |
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A smiling woman??
If you don't want to contort your neck, please touch the picture with the mouse (not klicking) and it will rotate bottom to top (JavaScript). Without JavaScript please click on it. I received this picture from <qrp(at)gmx.net>. It's the title page of the book "Savoir apprendre: les nouvelles méthodes" by Goéry Delacôte. You can order it here: www.amazon.fr Unfortunately I don't know what's the content of the book - I'm not able to understand French |
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Impossible Objects
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6
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Richard Gregory
first designed such objects which have no
sense in three dimensions. The Dutch artist
Maurits Corneille Escher
(1898 to 1972) used them for
his pictures of impossible stairs and buildings.
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This picture, named
The Terrace was painted by David Macdonald. It's similar to the painting "The Folded Chessboard" by Sandro Del Prete Many Thanks for the permission to put it on my page! |
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Alfons Krolage
did handicraft this
impossible triangle, called tribar. Please click on it for magnification. |
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These pictures I received from
Patrick Mackaaij |
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One of the most well-known pictures by M. C. Escher
is the waterfall, a lithography. It shows an imaginary perpetual motion machine. |
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And here you can see an old photomontage, which
I received from Felix Kehl |
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Masters of Deception
Escher, Dali, and the Artists of Optical Illusion Book by Al Seckel |
The collection will be extended! Have you any idea? So please send me an
| Did you enjoy this little website? | ||
Maybe you'll think of me if sometimes you'll need
a Book, a CD-ROM, a Music-CD, a Video
or something else. If you take the way
to your orders
over my site, you can help to enlarge my
Panoptikum.
Please use the
searching-field at the right,
this
 Link to Amazon,
My daughter's Optical Illusions Shop
or maybe you'll find something on my websites.
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If you want to buy something in future,
maybe I can persuade you to think of this little roundabout way.
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| May I recommend you the following interesting books and other informational material: | ||
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Optical Illusions (Games and Toys)
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Optical Illusions (Books)
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| Please visit also the other themes of my Panoptikum: |
