The Goggles, They Do Nothing

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Posted by michael on Sunday October 3, 2004 @11:24AM from the do-not-view-while-operating-machinery dept.

Suchetha writes "In anticipation of a slow news day i would like to direct the Slashdot hordes to Akiyoshi Kitaoka's Optical Illusions page. The page also has explanations on why/how they occur (in icky PDF format). The page is on a .jp uni server so they SHOULD be able to handle the herd of rhinos that is ./."

25 of 321 comments (clear)

Coral Cache Link! by Anonymous Coward · 2004-10-03 11:25 · Score: 5, Informative

Use the cache so more people can see! Thanks!
Interesting warning on the site... by daveschroeder · 2004-10-03 11:25 · Score: 4, Informative

Caution: This page contains some works of "anomalous motion illusion", which might make sensitive observers dizzy or sick. Should you feel dizzy, you had better leave this page immediately.

Some of the pictures on this website can cause dizziness or might possibly epileptic seizures. The latter happens when the brain can't handle the conflicting information from your two eyes. If you start feeling unwell when using this website, immediately cover one eye with your hand and then leave the page. Do not close your eyes because that can make the attack worse.
1. Re:Interesting warning on the site... by Gannoc · 2004-10-03 11:38 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Some of the pictures on this website can cause dizziness or might possibly epileptic seizures.
  
  FINALLY, a web page that can kill! Its like one of those crappy movies from 1994 when the net seemed super-cool to Hollywood.
  
  "Slaughter.org: The Cyberkiller"
  
  "Jenny! Don't click on that hyperlink!"
  "Oh noze! She has been capslocked by the optical illusions! When the machine boots, it will lock down her mind forever!"
  "I can't reach the caps lock key!"
  "We'll have to hit the caps lock key... IN VIRTUAL REALITY!"
2. Re:Interesting warning on the site... by Have+Blue · 2004-10-03 11:50 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  I guess this guy is rich and famous now.
3. Re:Interesting warning on the site... by Short+Circuit · 2004-10-03 16:06 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  There was a time when I wished the FBI would go around seizing Pokémon momentos...
  
  --
  tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
Exploratorium by Jadsky · 2004-10-03 11:30 · Score: 4, Interesting

Some of these are on display on out-of-the-way doors in the Exploratorium science museum in San Francisco. It looked like some of the staff members had printed them out and posted them there for their own personal satisfaction, but a lot of the visitors were finding themselves distracted from the bigger attractions to stare at these.

It was trippy to have the spinning snakes one as my wallpaper for some time, but at six by four feet, it really does begin to make you a little dizzy.
Mirror by alienfluid · 2004-10-03 11:35 · Score: 5, Informative

Here here
1. Re:Mirror by sabNetwork · 2004-10-03 12:15 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Damn.
  
  I read your subject and I was hoping for the optical illusion of a mirror.
  
  Alas, it was only a copy of the website.
  
  --
sweet christ by Anonymous Coward · 2004-10-03 11:35 · Score: 5, Funny

I'm in cafe nursing a severe hangover. That shit almost made me yak all over my laptop.
Question by RiotXIX · 2004-10-03 11:41 · Score: 4, Interesting

Is staring at these bad for your eyes? Ie. More than staring at a normal picture for say, one minute?

Because I could...nay..have found myself staring at these for periods, and assummed I will get a bit of headache, of that they are bad for my vision (thus forcing myself to stop).

--
"You know you don't act like a scientist, you're more like a game show host." Dana Barret
I know a certain coworker... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-10-03 11:44 · Score: 4, Funny

... who is coming in to a new background image on their machine.
Dale Purves at the Duke Medical Center by maceo1023 · 2004-10-03 11:54 · Score: 5, Interesting

The laboratory of Dale Purves at the Duke University Medical Center is also researching visual illusions. Check out www.purveslab.net for interactive animations (yes, it's a Flash site).

He's also written a book entitled Why We See What We Do: An Empirical Theory of Vision.
No vector files? by Frappuccino · 2004-10-03 12:04 · Score: 4, Informative

The guy took off the download page for the vector files because too many people were illegally using the files. So what if I wanted to download the Adobe Illustrator file of the roating snakes to print out a giant poster on my Epson 7600?
Archive.org to the rescue!
http://web.archive.org/web/20031203215948/www.psy. ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/download.html/
This will probably get slashdotted really quick because the archive.org servers are already slow. Someone make a mirror of this page quick so everyone can have a piece!
Bathroom Wallpaper by Superfreaker · 2004-10-03 12:08 · Score: 5, Funny

I had seen this before and was looking for a custom wallpaper manufacturer to have the Rotating Snakes illusion made into wallpaper for my bathroom. Just for the entertainment of having my friends to to go to the bathroom after a long night of drinking...hilarity ensues.
Re:t-shirts? by InfiniteWisdom · 2004-10-03 12:24 · Score: 5, Funny

You need to stare at it for a bit for it to work... a casual glance won't do it. Now maybe if it was on the front of a girl's tshirt...

Actually that might be a good protection for girls that don't like guys staring at their chests :) Guy stares... 5 seconds later... epileptic seisure!
Mirrordot to the rescue! by nxtr · 2004-10-03 12:30 · Score: 5, Informative

Just use this. Just saw it on Wired. They mirror every website Slashdot news includes.
A practical use... by EmbeddedJanitor · 2004-10-03 12:39 · Score: 4, Interesting

My son is a field hockey goalkeeper which, some while ago, lead me to think about things one could do to provide "optical diversions" to favour the goalkeeper. One of the things I considered was the use of camoflage techniques as done with navy ships of old, and soldiers through the ages, to break up the lines and confuse the oposition. Camoflage can be used to not only *hide* the person/object but can also be used to confuse the senses (eg. make it hard to tell which direction the objct is moving and what its features are) thus making it hard for someone aiming at a target. A delay of a second or so is often enough to give the edge. Anyway, back to the goalkeeper... if one could confuse the striker as to where the goalkeeper's arms etc are then it will take the striker a bit longer to get a shot off or cause them to miss their aim.
These optical devices could potentially be quite useful... going to have a play :-).

--
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Cool illusion: motion-induced blindness by FleaPlus · 2004-10-03 13:05 · Score: 5, Interesting

A very cool illusion is available here. Try looking inside of the triangle defined by the yellow dots, as the blue dots wander around. After a few moments, the yellow dots begin to blink in and out of your visual consciousness. It's quite a powerful effect.
My favorite optical illusion by TrentL · 2004-10-03 13:40 · Score: 5, Interesting

Check out this image. The squares marked "A" and "B" are the same shade of grey. If you don't believe me, open the page in a paint program and check out the colors.
1. Re:My favorite optical illusion by Dalcius · 2004-10-03 15:26 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  How many people actually opened this up in Gimp?
  
  How many of you swore that each checkerbox was different and got thoroughly pissed off when you checked the hex value with the dropper and they were the same?
  
  How many of you physically cut and moved one box next to its partner and back again over and over, screaming in mental anguish as one moment they're obviously the same and the next they're two different colors?
  
  Count me in. This illusion pisses me off. :)
  
  --
  ~Dalcius
  Rome wasn't burnt in a day.
2. Re:My favorite optical illusion by jtriska · 2004-10-03 17:02 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Its actually a pretty simple illusion thats both a problem to artists as well as a useful tool.
  
  Basically, colors always effect other colors. For example, if a gray square is surrounded by black squares, the gray square will seem much brighter than it would sitting next to other tones of gray.
  
  If you surround the gray square with white squares, the gray square will seem much darker.
  
  I guess you could call it the color theory of relativity.
  
  This works with colors, not just with shades of gray. Surround a medium gray square by orange squares, and the gray square will take on a cool blueish hue (blue is complementary/opposite of orange), even if its rgb is 128,128,128.
  
  In this optical illusion, the shadow cast from the cylinder onto the 'A' squares is affecting the appearance of the 'B' square. Its only the shadow thats causing the illusion.
3. Re:My favorite optical illusion by gopher_hunt · 2004-10-04 02:25 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Here is the original link, along with an explanation of why this illusion works.
  
  Link
Re:Heh, er... by NanoGator · 2004-10-03 14:44 · Score: 4, Funny

"that would be a japanese university server. you must be american."

Look! Mozira!! RUN!!!

--
"Derp de derp."
Re:Google Image Search has some copies by MikeDX · 2004-10-03 20:10 · Score: 5, Funny

Ah, so The Googles, They Do Something!
Re:Lies! by sonicattack · 2004-10-03 21:11 · Score: 4, Funny

That has to be the nicest color illusion I've seen. I believe that the illusion is so good, that the only reason the dropper shows both squares being (170, 170,170) is that even the GIMP was fooled by the shadow.