Interesting inventions of the world. Unusual inventions of mankind (5 photos). Modern inventions in technology

Optical illusion refers to such effects of visual perception that occur involuntarily or consciously in a person observing certain images.

Such effects are also called optical illusions - errors in visual perception, the cause of which is the inaccuracy or inadequacy of the processes occurring during the unconscious correction of visual images. In addition, the physiological characteristics of the organs of vision and the psychological aspects of visual perception also take part in the process of the emergence of optical illusions.

Optical illusion, presented in this section of the site, is to distort perception by incorrectly estimating the length of segments, the size of the angles, the colors of the visible object, etc. Its most popular types are depth perception illusions, flips, stereo pairs and motion illusions.

Illusions of depth perception include inadequate reflection of the depicted object. The most famous examples of such illusions are two-dimensional contour pictures - when they are observed, they are unconsciously perceived by the brain as one-convex. In addition, distortions in the perception of depth can lead to incorrect estimation of geometric dimensions (in some cases, the error reaches 25%).

Optical illusion The flipper consists in the image of such a picture, the perception of which depends on the direction of view.

Stereopairs make it possible to observe a stereoscopic image by superimposing them on periodic structures. Focusing the eye behind the picture leads to the observation of a stereoscopic effect.

Moving illusions are periodic images, a long look at which leads to a visual perception of movement from separate parts.

See the frog and the horse in this optical illusion?

This picture is very famous. Flip it over to see how men see women after 6 beers.

Mysterious face found on Mars. This is a real photograph of the surface of Mars taken by Viking 1 in 1976.

Stare at the four black dots in the center of the image for about 30-60 seconds. Then quickly close your eyes and turn to something bright (a lamp or a window). You should see a white circle with an image inside.

Beautiful illusion of a moving bike (© Akiyoshi Kitaoka: Used with permission).

Illusion of moving curtains (© Akiyoshi Kitaoka: Used with permission).

Interesting optical illusion with perfect squares (© Akiyoshi Kitaoka: used with permission).

And once again perfect squares (© Akiyoshi Kitaoka: used with permission).

This is a classic - no need to explain.

There should be 11 faces in this picture. The average layman sees 4-6, attentive - 8-10. The best see all 11, the schizophrenics and paranoids 12 or more. And you? (Don't take this quiz too seriously, I've heard there might be 13 faces.)

Can you see the face in this pile of coffee beans? Don't rush, it's really there.

Do you see squares or rectangles? In fact, there are only straight lines in different directions, but our brain perceives them in a completely different way!

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 "mistake, delusion." This suggests that illusions have long been interpreted as some kind of malfunction in the visual system. Many researchers have studied the causes of their occurrence. Some visual deceptions have long been scientifically explained, while others have not yet found an explanation.

Do not take optical illusions seriously, trying to understand and solve them, it's just how our vision works. This is how the human brain processes visible light reflected from images.
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 lot 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 in space.

12 black dots

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

Impossible figures

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

Impossible Trident

Classic blevet- perhaps the brightest representative of optical drawings from the category of "impossible figures". No matter how hard you try, you will not be able to determine where the middle prong originates.

Another striking example is the impossible Penrose triangle.

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

As well as "impossible elephant" Roger Shepard.

Ames room

Issues of optical illusions interested Adelbert Ames Jr. from early childhood. After becoming an ophthalmologist, he did not stop his research on depth perception, which resulted in the famous Ames Room.

How the Ames room works

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

Illusions of movement

This category of optical tricks is of most 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 goes astray, the retina captures the image intermittently, spasmodically, and the brain activates the areas of the cortex responsible for detecting movement.

floating star

It's hard to believe that this picture is not an animated gif-format, 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 few such illusions of motion, that is, static images that appear to be in motion. For example, the famous spinning circle.

Moving arrows

rays from the center

striped spirals

moving figures

After the disappearance of the zebra in the second picture, you can make sure that the movement of the yellow and blue rectangles is synchronized.

Illusions-shifters

The most numerous and fun genre of drawings-illusions is based on a change in the direction of looking at a graphic object. The simplest upside-down drawings just need to be rotated 180 or 90 degrees.

Horse or frog

Nurse or old woman

Beauty or ugly

Pretty 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: the old woman and vase profiles

Old people/Mexicans

An elderly couple or guitar-singing Mexicans? Most see old people first, and only then do their eyebrows turn into a sombrero, and their eyes into faces. The authorship belongs to the Mexican artist Octavio Ocampo, who created many pictures-illusions of a similar nature.

Lovers/dolphins

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

The list of such dual pictures is endless:

Is this cat going down or going up the stairs?

In which direction is the window open?

You can change direction just by thinking about it.

Illusions of color and contrast

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

gray squares

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

Such a trick is possible due to the peculiarities of how our brain works. A shadow without sharp borders falls on square B. Thanks to the darker "environment" and 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.

Blue is just an optical illusion

Don't believe? Here's what happens 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 the perception of color are not uncommon. Take, for example, the white and gold or black and blue dress that conquered the Internet in 2015. What color was this mysterious dress, and why did different people perceive it differently?

The explanation for the dress phenomenon is very simple: as in the case of gray squares, it all depends on the imperfect chromatic adaptation of our organs of vision. As you know, the human retina consists of two types of receptors: rods and cones. Rods capture light better, while cones capture color. Each person has a different ratio of cones and rods, so the definition 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 white-and-gold dress drew attention to the brightly lit background and decided that the dress was in the shade, which means that the white color should be darker than usual. If the dress seemed blue-black to you, then your eye first of all paid attention to the main color of the dress, which in this photo really has a blue tint. Then your brain judged that the golden hue was black, brightened due to the rays of the sun directed at the dress and the poor quality of the photo.

In fact, the dress was blue with black lace.

And here is another photo that baffled millions of users who could not decide if there was a wall in front of them or a lake.

Wall or lake? (correct answer is wall)

Optical illusions on video

Ballerina

This insane optical illusion is misleading: it is difficult to determine which leg of the figure is the supporting one and, as a result, to understand in which direction the ballerina is spinning. Even if you succeeded, while watching the video, the supporting leg can “change” and the girl seems to start to rotate in the other direction.

If you could easily fix the direction of the ballerina's movement, this indicates a rational, practical mindset. If the ballerina rotates in different directions, this means that you have a stormy, 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, then peripheral vision will frighteningly distort the faces of celebrities.

Optical illusions in design

An optical illusion can be a spectacular tool 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 only an illusion on paper. But no, the design studio from Valencia has immortalized it in the form of a spectacular minimalist vase.

Bookshelf inspired by the impossible trident. Designed by Norwegian designer Bjorn Blikstad.

And here is a rack inspired by one of the most famous optical illusions - parallel lines by Johann Zellner. All shelves are parallel to each other - otherwise what would be the use of such a cabinet - but even for those who have long acquired such a rack, it is difficult to get rid of the impression of slanted lines.

The same example inspired the creators of " Zellner rug».

Of interest to fans of unusual things is the chair designed by Chris Duffy. It seems that it relies solely on the front legs. But if you dare to sit on it, you will realize that the shadow cast by the chair is its main support.

Optical Illusion - Illusion Pictures with Explanations

Do not take optical illusions seriously, trying to understand and solve them, it's just how our vision works. This is how the human brain processes visible light reflected images.
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.
All images are accompanied by explanations: how and how much you need to look at the picture in order to see something that is not really there.

These figures are moving at the same speed, but our vision tells us otherwise. In the first gif, four figures move at the same time until they are adjacent to each other. After separation, the illusion arises that they move along black and white stripes independently of each other. After the disappearance of the zebra in the second picture, you can make sure that the movement of the yellow and blue rectangles is synchronized.

Carefully look at the black dot in the center of the photo while the timer counts down 15 seconds, after which the black and white image will turn into color, that is, the grass is green, the sky is blue, and so on. But if you do not stare at this point (to cheer yourself up), then the picture will remain black and white.

Without looking away, look at the cross and you will see how a green spot will run along the purple circles, and then they will completely disappear.

If you look at the green dot for a long time, the yellow dots will disappear.

Stare at the black dot and the gray bar will suddenly turn blue.

If you cut a chocolate bar 5 by 5 and rearrange all the pieces in the order shown, then an extra piece of chocolate will appear. Do this trick with a regular chocolate bar and it will never run out. (Joke).

From the same series.

Count the players. Now wait 10 seconds. Oops! Parts of the picture are still the same, but one football player has disappeared somewhere!

The alternation of black and white squares in the four circles creates the illusion of a spiral.

If you look in the middle of this animated picture, then you will go down the corridor faster, if you look to the right or left, then more slowly.

On a white background, the gray stripe looks uniform, but as soon as the white background changes, the gray stripe immediately takes on many shades.

With a slight movement of the hand, the rotating square turns into randomly moving lines.

Animation is obtained by overlaying a black grid on the drawing. Before our eyes, static objects begin to move. Even the cat reacts to this movement.

If you look at the cross in the center of the picture, then peripheral vision will turn the starry faces of Hollywood actors into freaks.

Two pictures of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. At first glance it looks like the tower on the right is leaning more than the one on the left, but the two pictures are actually the same. The reason lies in the fact that the human visual system considers two images as part of a single scene. Therefore, it seems to us that both photographs are not symmetrical.

In which direction does the subway train go?

This is how a simple change in color can make the picture come to life.

We look exactly 30 seconds without blinking, then we look at someone's face, object or another picture.

Warm-up for the eyes ... or for the brain. After rearranging the parts of the triangle, suddenly, there is free space.
The answer is simple: in fact, the figure is not a triangle, the "hypotenuse" of the lower triangle is a broken line. This can be determined by the cells.

At first glance, it seems that all the lines are curved, but in fact they are parallel. The illusion was discovered by R. Gregory in the Wall Cafe (Wall) in Bristol. Therefore, this paradox is called "The wall in the cafe."

Stare at the middle of the picture for thirty seconds, then move your gaze to the ceiling or white wall and blink. Who did you see?

An optical effect that gives the viewer a false impression of how the chair is standing. The illusion is due to the original design of the chair.

English NO (NO) turns into YES (YES) using curved letters.

Each of these circles rotates counterclockwise, but if you fix your eyes on one of them, it will seem that the second circle rotates clockwise.

3D drawing on asphalt

In which direction does the ferris wheel rotate? If you look to the left, then clockwise, if you look to the left, then counterclockwise. Perhaps you will have the opposite.

It's hard to believe, but the squares in the center are motionless.

Both cigarettes are actually the same size. Just place two cigarette rulers on top and bottom of the monitor. The lines will be parallel.

Similar illusion. Of course, these spheres are the same!

The droplets sway and “float”, although in reality they remain in their places, and only the columns in the background move.