The human eye and brain sometimes behave “strangely”, as if they distort reality, don’t you believe it? See for yourself...

I’ll start with the simplest one: well, do you see the movement, the vibrations of the picture? In fact, it is static. And all this thanks to the contrasting colors and shape of the pattern...

And here, pay attention to two rectangles, on a gray background they move evenly, but on a striped one it seems that one is lagging behind - an optical illusion...

In this picture, we look closely at the girl’s red nose for some time, then move our gaze to the neighboring one white background and... voila, we see, albeit not entirely clear, but obvious, color image girls...

Look to the center. Has the image moved?

Look at the red spot in the center, at first it is not clear what is shown in the picture, but in the next frame you will see a color photograph of the beach, although in fact it is black and white...

Two absolutely identical photographs of the runway. But on the one on the right, it seems the stripe is slightly shifted to the right...

Look at the red dot, after a few seconds, the outer blue circle will disappear from view...

Everything swam and moved before your eyes again, right? :)

Optical illusions are nothing more than optical illusion our brain. After all, when we look at a picture, our eye sees one thing, but the brain begins to protest and claim that this is not at all what it is. So it turns out that illusions are created by our mind, which begins to analyze the color, the position of the light source, the location of edges or corners, etc. Thanks to this, the correction of visual images occurs.
Be careful! Some illusions may cause tears, headache and disorientation in space.

Invisible chair. The optical effect, which gives the viewer a false impression of the location of the seat, is due to the original design of the chair, invented by the French studio Ibride.

Volumetric Rubik's Cube. The drawing looks so realistic that there is no doubt that this is a real object. Twisting the piece of paper, it becomes obvious that this is just a deliberately distorted image.

This is not an animated gif. This is an ordinary picture, all elements of which are absolutely motionless. It is your perception that is playing with you. Hold your gaze for a few seconds at one point, and the picture will stop moving.

Look at the cross in the center. Peripheral vision turns beautiful faces into monsters.

Flying cube. What looks like a real cube floating in the air is actually a drawing on a stick.

Eye? A shot from photographer Liamm, who was filming a foam sink but soon realized it was an eye staring back at him.

Which direction does the wheel spin?

Hypnosis. Stare without blinking at the middle of the image for 20 seconds, and then move your gaze to someone’s face or just a wall.

Four circles. Be careful! This optical illusion can cause headaches lasting up to two hours.

Ordering squares. The four white lines appear to be moving randomly. But once you put images of squares on them, everything becomes quite natural.

The birth of animation. Animated images by overlaying a grid of black parallel lines on the finished drawing. Before our eyes, static objects begin to move.

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Even the most hardened skeptics believe what their senses tell them, but the senses are easily deceived.

An optical illusion is an impression of a visible object or phenomenon that does not correspond to reality, i.e. optical illusion. Translated from Latin, the word “illusion” means “error, delusion.” This suggests that illusions have long been interpreted as some kind of malfunction visual system. Many researchers have been studying the causes of their occurrence.

Some visual illusions have long had a scientific explanation, others still remain a mystery.

website continues to collect the coolest optical illusions. Be careful! Some illusions can cause tearing, headaches and disorientation in space.

Endless chocolate

If you cut a chocolate bar 5 by 5 and rearrange all the pieces in the order shown, then out of nowhere an extra piece of chocolate will appear. You can do the same with an ordinary chocolate bar and make sure that this is not computer graphics, but a real-life riddle.

Illusion of bars

Take a look at these bars. Depending on which end you are looking at, the two pieces of wood will either be next to each other, or one of them will be lying on top of the other.

Cube and two identical cups

Optical illusion created by Chris Westall. There is a cup on the table, next to which there is a cube with a small cup. However, upon closer examination, we can see that in fact the cube is drawn, and the cups are exactly the same size. A similar effect is noticeable only at a certain angle.

Illusion "Cafe Wall"

Take a close look at the image. At first glance, all the lines seem to be curved, but in fact they are parallel. The illusion was discovered by R. Gregory at the Wall Cafe in Bristol. This is where its name came from.

Illusion of the Leaning Tower of Pisa

Above you see two pictures of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. At first glance, the tower on the right appears to lean more than the tower on the left, but in fact both of these pictures are the same. The reason is that the visual system views the two images as part of a single scene. Therefore, it seems to us that both photographs are not symmetrical.

Disappearing circles

This illusion is called "Vanishing Circles". It consists of 12 lilac arranged in a circle pink spots with a black cross in the middle. Each spot disappears in a circle for about 0.1 seconds, and if you focus on the central cross, you can get the following effect:
1) at first it will seem that there is a green spot running around
2) then the purple spots will start to disappear

An optical illusion is an impression of a visible object or phenomenon that does not correspond to reality, that is, an optical illusion. Some visual illusions have long had a scientific explanation, others still remain a mystery.

Optical illusions: optical illusion

The information collected by our eyes is in some way inconsistent with the source. Optical illusions can cause serious headaches. Therefore, such things must be treated with caution.

There are three main types of illusions:

1. Literal optical illusions

These optical illusions are considered the simplest. They are characterized by a difference in the image (that is, the perception of the image) and the actual tangible objects that make up the picture.

A literal optical illusion makes us see completely different objects or figures from those shown in the pictures.

2. Physiological optical illusions

These illusions affect the eyes and brain by overstimulating a certain type (brightness, color, size, position, tilt, movement).

3. Cognitive optical illusions

These illusions are the result of our brain's misperceptions and unconscious inferences.

We continue to collect the coolest optical illusions. Be careful: some of them can cause tearing, nausea and disorientation.

So, each of the following optical illusions can blow our minds

Do you see three pretty girls?

Now let's flip the image

Our brain rarely encounters upside-down images, so it cannot notice distortions in them

Illusion 13 people

Initially we see 12 people here, but after moving, another one appears, the 13th

Which way is the window open?

You can change direction just by thinking about it

Distortion of perception of movement

These blocks do not move one after another - their speed is the same

Fill color

Look at the black dot in the center. Keep looking at it as the picture changes.

Did you see a color photo? Now take your eyes away from the point.

Contrast simulation

The squares on the left side seem to be darker than the squares on the right

However, they are actually the same color

Ames room

Room irregular shape, used to create a three-dimensional optical illusion, was designed by American ophthalmologist Albert Ames in 1934

Dynamic brightness gradient

Slowly move your eyes closer to the screen and the “light” in the middle will become brighter

Move it back and it will become weak again.

Vanishing points

Focus your gaze on the green dot in the middle

After a while yellow dots will disappear one after another. In fact, they remain in place, it's just that static frames disappear from our consciousness if they are surrounded by constantly changing images.

Four Circles Illusion

None of them actually intersect

Droste effect

Droste effect - looping recursive image

Illusion of perception

The color of the stripe in the center is actually uniform and the same along the entire length

moving poster

Roll your mouse wheel up and down and you will see the poster “moving”

Selective perception

There are two photos here, and there is one difference between them

Try to find it, and once you notice the difference, it will be impossible not to see it.

Optical illusions: pictures

Which of these faces belongs to a woman and which to a man?...

Wrong... The pictures show the same face

Is this the same picture? Yes.

There is NO lake in the picture

Tilt your head and look closely at the image

This is not a bird

The picture shows a painted female figure

This floor is flat

These two monsters are the same size

The orange dots in both pictures are the same size

How many legs does an elephant have?

Are you sure of what you see?

What a wonderful picture of cars.

Or are they toy cars?

11/15/2016 11/16/2016 by Vlad

An optical illusion is an impression of a visible object or phenomenon that does not correspond to reality, i.e. optical illusion. Translated from Latin, the word “illusion” means “error, delusion.” This suggests that illusions have long been interpreted as some kind of malfunction in the visual system. Many researchers have been studying the causes of their occurrence. Some visual illusions have long had a scientific explanation, while others have not yet been explained.

Don't take optical illusions seriously, trying to understand and solve them, it's just how our vision works. So human brain processes visible light reflected from pictures.
Unusual shapes and combinations of these pictures make it possible to achieve a deceptive perception, as a result of which it seems that the object is moving, changing color, or an additional picture appears.

There are a huge variety of optical illusions, but we tried to collect the most interesting, crazy and incredible ones for you. Be careful: some of them can cause tearing, nausea and disorientation.

12 black dots

For starters, one of the most talked about illusions on the internet is the 12 black dots. The trick is that you can't see them at the same time. Scientific explanation This phenomenon was discovered by the German physiologist Ludimar Hermann in 1870. The human eye stops seeing the full picture due to lateral inhibition in the retina.

Impossible figures

At one time, this genre of graphics became so widespread that it even received its own name - impossibilism. Each of these figures seems quite real on paper, but simply cannot exist in the physical world.

Impossible trident

Classic blivet- perhaps the most bright representative optical drawings from the “impossible figures” category. No matter how you try, you will not be able to determine where the middle prong originates.

Another shining example– impossible Penrose triangle.

It is in the form of the so-called "endless staircase".

And also "impossible elephant" Roger Shepard.

Ames room

Issues of optical illusions interested Adelbert Ames Jr. early childhood. After becoming an ophthalmologist, he continued his research into depth perception, which resulted in the famous Ames Room.

How does the Ames room work?

In a nutshell, the effect of Ames's room can be conveyed as follows: it seems that in the left and right corners of its back wall there are two people - a dwarf and a giant. Of course, this is an optical trick, and in fact these people are of quite normal height. In reality, the room has an elongated trapezoidal shape, but due to the false perspective it appears rectangular to us. The left corner is farther away from the visitors’ view than the right, and therefore the person standing there seems so small.

Movement Illusions

This category of optical tricks is of greatest interest to psychologists. Most of them are based on the subtleties of color combinations, the brightness of objects and their repetition. All these tricks mislead our peripheral vision, as a result of which the perception mechanism gets confused, the retina captures the image intermittently, spasmodically, and the brain activates the areas of the cortex responsible for recognizing movement.

floating star

It's hard to believe that this picture is not an animated GIF, but an ordinary optical illusion. The drawing was created by Japanese artist Kaya Nao in 2012. A pronounced illusion of movement is achieved due to the opposite direction of the patterns in the center and along the edges.

There are quite a lot similar illusions movement, that is, static images that appear to be moving. For example, famous rotating circle.

Moving arrows

Rays from the center

Striped spirals

Moving figures

These figures move at the same speed, but our vision tells us otherwise. In the first gif, four figures move simultaneously while they are adjacent to each other. After separation, the illusion arises that they are moving along black and white stripes independently of each other.

After the zebra disappears in the second picture, you can verify that the movement of the yellow and blue rectangles is synchronized.

Changeling illusions

The most numerous and fun genre of illusion drawings is based on changing the direction of looking at a graphic object. The simplest inverted drawings just need to be rotated 180 or 90 degrees.

Horse or frog

Nurse or old woman

Beauty or Ugly

Cute girls?

Flip the image

Girl/old woman

One of the most popular dual images was published in 1915 in the cartoon magazine Puck. The caption to the drawing read: “My wife and mother-in-law.”

The most famous optical illusions: old woman girl and vase profiles

Old people/Mexicans

Elderly married couple or Mexicans singing with a guitar? Most people see old people first, and only then their eyebrows turn into sombreros and their eyes into faces. The authorship belongs to the Mexican artist Octavio Ocampo, who created many illusion pictures of a similar nature.

Lovers/dolphins

Surprisingly, the interpretation of this psychological illusion depends on the person’s age. As a rule, children see dolphins frolicking in the water - their brains, not yet familiar with sexual relationships and their symbols, simply do not isolate two lovers in this composition. Older people, on the contrary, see the couple first, and only then the dolphins.

The list of such dual pictures can be continued endlessly:

Does this cat go down or up the stairs?

Which way is the window open?

You can change direction just by thinking about it.

Illusions of color and contrast

Unfortunately, human eye imperfect, and in our assessments of what we see we (without noticing it ourselves) often rely on the color environment and brightness of the background of the object. This leads to some very interesting optical illusions.

Gray squares

Optical illusions of colors are one of the most popular types of optical illusion. Yes, squares A and B are painted the same color.

This trick is possible due to the way our brain works. A shadow without sharp boundaries falls on square B. Thanks to the darker "surrounding" and the smooth shadow gradient, it appears to be significantly darker than square A.

Green spiral

There are only three colors in this photo: pink, orange and green.

The blue color here is just an optical illusion

Don't believe me? This is what you get when you replace pink and orange with black.

Without a distracting background, you can see that the spiral is completely green

Is the dress white and gold or blue and black?

However, illusions based on color perception are not uncommon. Take, for example, the white-gold or black-and-blue dress that conquered the Internet in 2015. What color was this mysterious dress really, and why? different people Did you perceive it differently?

The explanation of the dress phenomenon is very simple: as in the case of gray squares, everything depends on the imperfect chromatic adaptation of our visual organs. As you know, the human retina consists of two types of receptors: rods and cones. Rods capture light better, while cones capture color better. Each person has a different ratio of cones to rods, so the determination of the color and shape of an object is slightly different depending on the dominance of one or another type of receptor.

Those who saw the dress in white and gold noticed the brightly lit background and decided that the dress was in the shadows, which means white should be darker than usual. If the dress seemed blue-black to you, it means that your eye first of all paid attention to the main color of the dress, which in this photo actually has a blue tint. Then your brain judged that the golden hue was black, lightened due to the sun's rays directed at the dress and the poor quality of the photo.

In reality the dress was blue with black lace.

Here's another photo that baffled millions of users who couldn't decide whether it was a wall in front of them or a lake.

Wall or lake? (correct answer is wall)

Optical illusions on video

Ballerina

This crazy optical illusion is misleading: it is difficult to determine which leg of the figure is the supporting leg and, as a result, to understand in which direction the ballerina is rotating. Even if you succeed, while watching the video the supporting leg may “change” and the girl seems to begin to rotate in the other direction.

If you were able to easily fix the direction of the ballerina’s movement, this indicates a rational, practical mindset of your mind. If the ballerina rotates in different sides, this means that you have a wild, not always consistent imagination. Contrary to popular belief, this does not affect the dominance of the right or left hemisphere.

Monster faces

If you look at the cross in the center for a long time, your peripheral vision will frighteningly distort the faces of celebrities.

Optical illusions in design

An optical illusion can be a spectacular help for those who want to add zest to their home. Very often “impossible figures” are used in design.

It seemed that the impossible triangle was doomed to remain just an illusion on paper. But no - a design studio from Valencia immortalized it in the form of a spectacular minimalist vase.

Bookshelf inspired by the impossible trident. The author is Norwegian designer Bjorn Blikstad.

Here is a shelving unit inspired by one of the most famous optical illusions – parallel lines by Johann Zellner. All the shelves are parallel to each other - otherwise what would be the use of such a cabinet - but even those who purchased such a rack a long time ago find it difficult to get rid of the impression of slanted lines.

The creators were inspired by the same example. Zellner rug».

Of interest to lovers of unusual things is a chair designed by Chris Duffy. It appears to rest solely on its front legs. But if you risk sitting on it, you will understand that the shadow cast by the chair is its main support.