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Optical IllusionsCuriosities and Visual Effects |
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What earthquakes can do!
The photo shows my daughter 1998 in San Francisco (No photomontage!)  Explanation
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| Please observe: © 2002 by Erwin Purucker |
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If I get the one,
who tore my picture... ! |
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Photo: Erwin Purucker
(Please observe my Copyright!) Idea: From the book Incredible Optical Illusions by Nigel Rodgers: 
(English Edition) |
| Look at the dot in the center and move your head backwards and forwards! |
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| I received this picture from Leonid Korezkij |
| A similar pic, where you only have to move your eyes I received from Stefan Sch. |
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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. This Motion After Effect 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 |
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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 Boesch |
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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) |
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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. |
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: 
I received this picture from 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... ?
This drawing I received from Sonja Schmidt. 
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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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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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I received this picture from
Eris Jones |
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These pictures I received from
Patrick Mackaaij |
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One of the most well-known pictures M. C. Escher
is the waterfall, a lithography. )
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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
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Did you enjoy this little website?
Then please visit also the other themes of my Panoptikum. |
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| Maybe you'll think of me if sometimes you'll need a Book, a CD-ROM, a Music-CD or a Video (maybe as a present?). 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, or maybe you'll find something on my websites. |
If you want to buy something at Amazon
later,
maybe I can persuade you to think of this little roundabout way
and to use the searching field at the right.
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May I recommend you the following interesting books and other informational
material:
(You can buy it directly from here by clicking on one. If you do it in
this way or you use this
link to amazon.com
and buy something you can help to enlarge my
Panoptikum
)
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Optical Illusions for Quilters |
101 Amazing Optical Illusions Fantastic Visual Tricks |
More Optical Illusions by Al Seckel |
Walter Wick's Optical Tricks by Walter Wick |
| Please visit also the other themes of my Panoptikum: |
