Illusions Tagged ‘2nd prize’

2009
finalist

Color dove illusion

2009 Second prize
Yuval Barkan & Hedva Spitzer

Tel-Aviv University, Israel
This movie requires Flash Player 9

Fix your gaze on the central black point on the bird, as well as while the sky flashes. When the bird starts to fly, follow it, and keep staring at the black fixation point. You’ll start to notice, that the “empty bird” is filled-in with a color similar to the previous background’s color. The colored image produces illusory colors, an afterimage on “empty” shape, which induces an effect opposite to the well known “afterimage” effect. The common “afterimage” effect yields perceived complementary color, whereas the current effect shows an appearance of a color similar to that of the background, where originally, no physical color was present in the empty shape.

VN:F [1.8.4_1055]
(656 votes cast)
Share:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Google Bookmarks
  • StumbleUpon
  • email
2008
finalist

Jenkins: Ghostly Gaze

2008 Second prize
Rob Jenkins

University of Glasgow, UK
This movie requires Flash Player 9

How do we tell where other people are looking? Conventional wisdom says the dark parts of their eyes give it away. But the Ghostly Gaze illusion reveals a more subtle process.
From a distance, the sisters seem to stare at each other, but as you bring them closer to you with the slider, they turn their eyes to you! This is not a computer trick – to convince yourself set the slider to ‘close’ and walk away from your computer screen while looking at the image: notice that when you are sitting in front of the monitor the sisters are looking at you, but when you are about 3-4 meters away they look at each other!
The illusion is based on the hybrid image technique, developed by Schyns and Oliva. Gaze direction is an extremely important social cue. The Ghostly Gaze illusion shows that details such as the outline of the iris can override larger patches of darkness.

Read more about the illusion and possible explanations

VN:F [1.8.4_1055]
(80 votes cast)
Share:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Google Bookmarks
  • StumbleUpon
  • email
2007
finalist

The Illusory Contoured Tilting Pyramid

2007 Second prize
Pietro Guardini & Luciano Gamberini

University of Padova, Italy

Read more about the illusion and possible explanations

VN:F [1.8.4_1055]
(61 votes cast)
Share:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Google Bookmarks
  • StumbleUpon
  • email
2006
finalist

The Infinite Regress Illusion

2006 Second prize
Dartmouth College, USA

Get the Flash Player to see this content.

Fixate the black fixation point on the far left side of the image. Note that the figure appears to move steadily away from the fixation point, even though it is in fact only moving up and down.


See another version of the illusion

The infinite regress illusion reveals faulty integration of local and global motion signals Peter U. Tse & Po-Jang Hsieh Vision Research. 2006. 46:3881-5

VN:F [1.8.4_1055]
(67 votes cast)
Share:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Google Bookmarks
  • StumbleUpon
  • email
2005
finalist

Two-Stroke Apparent Motion

2005 Second prize
George Mather

Sussex University, UK

The illusion contains two pattern frames depicting a moving image (hence two-stroke) which are displayed using a technique that creates an impression of continuous forward movement.

Visit the website

Two-stroke: a new illusion of visual motion based on the time course of neural responses in the human visual system George Mather Vision Research. 2006. 46:2015-8

VN:F [1.8.4_1055]
(56 votes cast)
Share:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Google Bookmarks
  • StumbleUpon
  • email