This illusion is just a matter of perspective - Pokemon Forum

belrerdanocBAB1 · #1 07-20-2011, 01:57 PM

SIDEWALK SPHERE: Created in Paris by Francois Abenalet, this ingenious sidewalk installation goes beyond the usual chalk drawings by incorporating actual grass and trees. It's a classic example of anamorphosis -- a distorted image that only takes its "proper" form when viewed from exactly the right angle.

GEORGE WASHINGTON: America's first president gets a little homage in this illusion, which includes both a picture and a signature that work equally well when viewed upside-down

HIDDEN ANIMAL: Can you spot the creature embedded in this tree? If not, click here for a little help.

IMPOSSIBLE ROOM: LEGO mastermind Henry Lim has used the plastic blocks to create a convincing three-dimensional version of M.C. Escher's famous mind-boggling lithograph, "Relativity."

Jessu · #2 07-20-2011, 02:57 PM

Oh wow, an interesting bot for once. xD

Teddiursa of the Sky · #3 07-20-2011, 03:03 PM

Yeah, I think we should keep this shiz up! xD

YouLookLikeBread · #4 07-20-2011, 03:06 PM

We should?
We must XD

Ant2011 · #5 07-20-2011, 03:23 PM

brain go boom boom. But that's okay, illusions and paradoxes make fun boom boom...

MoonKit · #6 07-20-2011, 08:57 PM

CAN WE PWEASE KEEP DIS AWESOMENESS UP MODS

Lego makers can do epic things. The impossible room shows that.

Pokemon Trainer Sarah · #7 07-21-2011, 03:38 AM

Haha I guess we can keep this up. Feel free to share other optical illusions and cool stuff :P I'll just ban the bot and edit out the advertising parts...

*Moved to Other: Chat

Lusankya · #8 07-21-2011, 03:50 AM

The hollow face illusion, one of my favorite and freakiest. Basically when shown a concave face, one perceives it as convex. As a result, as the mask rotates it appears to reverse direction, when in reality, this mask is simply rotating clockwise.

White Knight · #9 07-21-2011, 03:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lusankya

The hollow face illusion, one of my favorite and freakiest. Basically when shown a concave face, one perceives it as convex. As a result, as the mask rotates it appears to reverse direction, when in reality, this mask is simply rotating clockwise.

Mind. Blown. Does anyone know why that happens?

Lusankya · #10 07-21-2011, 04:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thunderbolt

Mind. Blown. Does anyone know why that happens?

Currently scientific theory believes that it occurs because the bias of the human brain for perceiving faces as convex is so strong that it will ignore cues like lighting and shading to interpret it as such. Basically, your brain is so used to seeing faces as pushing outwards that it can't handle seeing an inverted face.

Strangely enough, if someone is asked to touch a point on an inverted mask like that, they will usually have no trouble. That is, although the center of the mask looks to be closer than the sides, most people will automatically move their fingers further than the sides of the mask to touch the dot. This points to very interesting disconnect between the different visual systems; although you consciously perceive the face as pushing out towards you, at the same time you unconsciously realize that it's actually pushing away from you.

I've recently been reading Phantoms in the Brain, which discusses stuff like this is brain-damaged patients. One woman was brain-damaged in such a way that she could not tell if a slot was vertical or horizontal, how wide or narrow it was, or even how far away it was. That is, if you asked her if it was up or down or side-to-side, or to estimate how far across the slot was, she couldn't tell you. Yet if you told her to put an envelope through the slot, she could do so with no problem. Which relates to the hollow face illusion in that there are many different visual systems in the brain analyzing different things that merely give us the perception of one, whole picture. This, among other stories bordering on absurdity, point to the very disturbing idea that our conscious minds are far less in control of ourselves than we would like.

Ant2011 · #11 07-21-2011, 05:46 AM

Soooo, would this also be the thread to share paradoxes?

The statement below is true.
The statement above is false.

Caspian · #12 07-21-2011, 06:20 AM

I looked up some optical illusions since this thread was pretty interesting [and the fact that an adbot created it is awesome]. This one was pretty cool.

Phantom Kat · #13 07-21-2011, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lusankya

The hollow face illusion, one of my favorite and freakiest. Basically when shown a concave face, one perceives it as convex. As a result, as the mask rotates it appears to reverse direction, when in reality, this mask is simply rotating clockwise.

It actually didn't rotate for me in the reverse direction until I read the statement twice. Then my mind corrected itself, and I started to see the illusion. I can't unsee it. D:

- Kat

Sixto · #14 07-21-2011, 12:11 PM

Coming or going?

Lusankya · #15 07-21-2011, 02:07 PM

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ner_Dragon.ogv

A variation of the Hollow Face Illusion, the Gathering for Gardner Dragon's head will appear to follow the viewer around up, down, right, and left as he moves. Actually it's just a paper model, and there' not a little motor in the neck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYf3nOYM_mQ

Not technically an illusion, but I found solids of constant width to be interesting. Basically they're oddly-shaped solids with a constant width (duh) that allows them to behave like spheres. In this video, a person puts a book flat on top of 3 solids and can roll the book in any direction smoothly, something you'd think could only be achieved with spheres. Among other things, these geometrical shapes allow you to drill square holes.