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The Optical Illusions Thread

Curiously enough, I don't think this is a Superior Mirage. There is no distortion near the bottom of the boat, which is what I would expect with a mirage. The photographer, David Morris, seems to have a better idea of what caused this- it is a 'false horizon', the result of different colours in the sea itself.
View attachment 36297

I spotted something similar the other day, (not a floating ship), the sea appeared to have two very distinct layers. The bottom layer was light grey and the top was almost like a wall of darker grey. Very odd. I see the sea every day and have never seen anything like it.
 
Another one of these, from Cornwall:

1615383151256.png
 
Curiously enough, I don't think this is a Superior Mirage. There is no distortion near the bottom of the boat, which is what I would expect with a mirage. The photographer, David Morris, seems to have a better idea of what caused this- it is a 'false horizon', the result of different colours in the sea itself.
View attachment 36297
experts have enhanced the above image to bring out more detail...
X34-landspeeder.jpg
 
Am I missing something here?
My tentative understanding of the point is that the motion of the graphic elements is illusory.
 
@Swifty , @flannel


Put in a few words of explanatory/editorial comment please :)

Doing it without messes things up for accessibility.

This was my relatively mild Mod post on the subject:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/good-posting-practices.16430/page-5#post-2071346

and this is EnolaGaia being rather more forceful:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/good-posting-practices.16430/page-5#post-2071365

Frides
I would normally, but optical illusions are fairly self-explanatory.
 
Yes, I can't imagine why someone with impaired vision would be looking at a thread about visual things.

People can and do appreciate all sorts of things.

Not everyone who struggles with this is totally blind as in absolutely nothing. Even then, they have the right as board members to scan down a list that says

* Amazing pavement art of chalk drawings (mountain, gorge, skyscrapers) which appear 3D
* Vertical stripes of black and white which appear to wobble although they are stationary.
* Two rocks which seem to be one dark and one light. They are really the same colour, with a contrasting dividing line.


Think tunnel/peripheral vision, think cognitive issues, think cataracts and tremors. Think of all the vision issues which don't take any notice of other people's failures of imagination.

A lack of imagination is a severe handicap. I don't know what the accommodations would be. Fortunately for many other conditions or differences there are very simple things which make a huge difference. The guidelines are intended to make the place as accessible as possible to as many actual and potential members as possible.

Please do let me know in PM if something isn't clear and/or you want to discuss the difficulties further. I've had several very positive conversations about this recently. :)

Frideswide

Edit to add: Rather than derailing this thread further, please take discussion to PM as suggested or the General Website Queries thread:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...ueries-2018-onward.66436/page-13#post-2076944
 
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Are you not seeing the movement when the video plays, or is it that you aren't detecting the video at all?
I could only see Japanese text, and had no idea what it was meant to be.
 
This optical illusion - called a scintillating starburst - is a new type that's not been documented before. The arrangement of the geometric forms within the rings tricks the eye into seeing 'beams' or 'rays' emanating outward from the figure's center.

99iWcZr2duH3Luw5PNn3KJ-1024-80.jpg
The effect is even more apparent when the figure is rotating. Check the Live Science article to see this enhanced rotating version.
A new type of optical illusion tricks the brain into seeing dazzling rays

Creators call the illusion the "scintillating starburst." ...

A new type of mind-bending visual illusion makes people see dazzling rays that aren't really there at all.

The newly discovered illusion, nicknamed the "scintillating starburst," is made up of a simple pattern of concentric wreaths on a plain white background. However, almost everyone who looks at it can see bright rays, or beams, emanating from the center of the design, like sunlight bursting through clouds. The viewer sees these non-existent rays, because the brain "connects the dots" between certain points in the wreaths.

Michael Karlovich, a visual artist with a background in neuroscience, created the scintillating starburst as the logo for his design company, Recursia Studios, in 2019. ...

"When I first saw the illusion I created, I instantly had a hunch I was looking at an effect I had never seen before," Karlovich told Live Science. ...

To find out more, Karlovich teamed up with Pascal Wallisch, a psychologist and data scientist at New York University, to conduct a scientific study on the design. ...

Visual illusions that trick the brain into seeing something that isn't there are not a new phenomenon, but the way this particular illusion works has not been studied and documented before. ...

Karlovich and Wallisch experimented with many different configurations of the scintillating starburst to determine which aspects most influence the effect. ...

The experiments also revealed that spinning the design made the ray effect stronger ...
FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/scintillating-starburst-illusion.html
 
I dont get this one - if you cover the central arrow prompt with a finger the shapes continue to move in the directions indicated, and contract/expand as appropriate too.

EDIT
OK having downloaded it so I could play it full screen and looped I think its the colors changing direction that does it. Im still not convinced the circle dosent actually compress though. So its a very strong illusion!
 
I dont get this one - if you cover the central arrow prompt with a finger the shapes continue to move in the directions indicated, and contract/expand as appropriate too.

EDIT
OK having downloaded it so I could play it full screen and looped I think its the colors changing direction that does it. Im still not convinced the circle dosent actually compress though. So its a very strong illusion!

I'm pretty sure that none of the shapes move at all - only the patterns of colours. Which makes it a pretty compelling illusion.
 
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