Check this out:
http://www.patmedia.net/marklevinson/cool/cool_illusion.html

I kept seeing a 'green circle' rotating around pink ones even while staring at the + in the middle.
That was pretty cool !
Nova

Hehe..that would certainly be able to amuse me for a couple hours on a slow day....

My eyes hurt now though ;)

That was cool !!!


I'm seeing spots ! :D

neat illusion

Awesome! Thanks, Happycat.

That was weird and surprising... I was sure those dots would NOT disappear!

That was cool. lol, I'm sharing it with a couple of people :o Thanks Happycat :)

Very cool! It did what it said. Then I could play with it and make the green and pink alternate, or see both at once or vanish.

I had the experience described. Very interesting.

But why does that happen that way? And how did they know what we'd be seeing?

check this one out -move you eyes close and then move away -repeat

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/91/rotatingcircles5ye.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

and this one

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/1723/blackdots8nq.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

find the monkey,lol

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/6960/chamelea0hc.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Woah that's awesome! I bookmarked it =^.^=
Thanks!

I had the experience described. Very interesting.

But why does that happen that way? And how did they know what we'd be seeing?
It's a combination of three different mechanisms: lateral inhibition, stereoscopic motion, and adaptation.

Stereoscopic motion is when your mind "puts together" different "shots" to form a perception of motion.

Lateral inhibition is why you see green -- when you see red, green is inhibited in that spot because the cells that fire to indicate red suppress the cells around them. When red goes away, the green cells suddenly fire before returning to a resting rate. This is why when you stare at something yellow, then look at a white wall, you see a blue image of the yellow object you were looking at.

Adaptation is when the receptor cells in your retina "tire". They are saturated and can no longer fire. What you are seeing seems to dissappear. Snow blindess is caused by this. The cells fire until they are saturated, then they need time to recover. Your eye is constantly "wiggling" to prevent this, but if you hold it still (staring at the fixation), you can stop the wiggling.

If you're interested in more optical illusions, I suggest the exploratorium website: http://www.exploratorium.com -- click on "online exhibits".

The "depth spinner" is my absolute favorite and my students love it, too. It's a great example of lateral inhibition in feature detector cells.

They were all cool. I have got plenty of fun out of those. I don't get find the monkey my understanding is that DB is just an awsome 3D wallpaper place.

I can't see the monkey--where is it????? pleeeze, someone tell me, I'll go nuts trying to find it!

Wow, way cool! I love stuff like that! I too can be amused by such an activity for a very long time; the mind is an amazing thing!

~MJL

All very very cool...

But I agree with Happycat -

WHERE IS THE MONKEY?? This one will drive me nuts!!!! :eek: :faint:

Those were cool, it did take forever for those pink dots to disappear, and they only disappeared for a second. I couldn't focus on the + for long enough! These things always end up giving me a headache, but they are fun! I didn't see a monkey either...:confused:

Not sure monkey was the right term...you do see the pretty woman, on the right, correct??