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The Goggles, They Do Nothing

Posted by michael on Sun Oct 03, 2004 06:24 PM
from the do-not-view-while-operating-machinery dept.
Entertainment Science
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 ./."
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The Goggles, They Do Nothing 50 Comments More /

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  • Coral Cache Link! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 03 2004, @06:25PM (#10422948)
    Use the cache [nyud.net] so more people can see! Thanks!

    • Google Image Search has some copies (Score:4, Informative)

      by billstewart (78916) on Sunday October 03 2004, @06:44PM (#10423076) Journal
      Some of these images have been copied elsewhere. Google Image Search [google.com] shows some of the pictures, such as rotsnake2.gif
    • Yeah, that smoking hole in their server room doesn't look like an optical illusion...

    • Mirrordot to the rescue! (Score:5, Informative)

      by nxtr (813179) on Sunday October 03 2004, @07:30PM (#10423306)
      Just use this [mirrordot.org]. Just saw it on Wired. They mirror every website Slashdot news includes.

    • My favorite optical illusion (Score:5, Interesting)

      by TrentL (761772) on Sunday October 03 2004, @08:40PM (#10423642) Homepage
      Check out this image. [bigpond.net.au] 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.
      • 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. :)

        • Re:My favorite optical illusion (Score:4, Informative)

          by jtriska (520530) on Monday October 04 2004, @12:02AM (#10425239)
          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.

        • Re:Lies! (Score:4, Informative)

          by TrentL (761772) on Sunday October 03 2004, @09:46PM (#10423934) Homepage
          lol. But sriously, the JPEG artifacts cause the values to be *slightly* off on some pixels. But I encourage you to cut out the A square and drag it next to the B square. When they're next to each other, they look exactly the same.

          • Re:Lies! (Score:5, Funny)

            by sonicattack (554038) on Monday October 04 2004, @04:11AM (#10426633) Homepage
            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.
    • Goddammit I wish somebody would update snpp, wolfcastle says "The goggles do nothing!", not "The goggles, they do nothing!"

      *apologies for the hj*

  • Interesting warning on the site... (Score:5, Informative)

    by daveschroeder (516195) * on Sunday October 03 2004, @06:25PM (#10422950)
    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.

    • Re:Interesting warning on the site... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Gannoc (210256) on Sunday October 03 2004, @06:38PM (#10423041)
      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!"

    • Re:Interesting warning on the site... (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      What is it with the Japanese and seizures? First it was Pokemon, now this. OK - that's only two examples, but I'm still convinced that they love their seizures.

    • A practical use... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by EmbeddedJanitor (597831) on Sunday October 03 2004, @07:39PM (#10423333)
      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 :-).

    • The latter happens when the brain can't handle the conflicting information from your two eyes

      I didn't realize this was the cause of seizure fears. I happen to be completely blind in one eye, does this mean I don't need to worry about getting seizures from this sort of thing? If so, that's an interesting bit of news I never heard of... perhaps even the first (only?) perk of being half blind.

  • Heh (Score:3, Funny)

    by thewldisntenuff (778302) on Sunday October 03 2004, @06:26PM (#10422953) Homepage
    The page is on a .jp uni server so they SHOULD be able to handle the herd of rhinos that is ./.

    He should have called us a "herd of nerds" :)

    -thewldisntenuff

  • Temping fate. (Score:3, Funny)

    by DAldredge (2353) <SlashdotEmail@GMail.Com> on Sunday October 03 2004, @06:26PM (#10422955) Journal
    It's nearly dead. That is what you get for tempting fate in your fscking summary. ;->

  • Exploratorium (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Jadsky (304239) on Sunday October 03 2004, @06:30PM (#10422990)
    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.

  • amazing (Score:3, Funny)

    by antani (303498) on Sunday October 03 2004, @06:33PM (#10423002)
    let's try ascii art .o. o.oo .o. o.
    . o.o.. o.o .o o.

    if you shake your head you can see the dots moving!
    and no headache! w00t!

    sure, today is a slow news day, what boring. gee.

  • Mirror (Score:5, Informative)

    by alienfluid (677872) on Sunday October 03 2004, @06:35PM (#10423014) Homepage
    Here here [lafayette.edu]

  • sweet christ (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 03 2004, @06:35PM (#10423021)
    I'm in cafe nursing a severe hangover. That shit almost made me yak all over my laptop.

  • Question (Score:5, Interesting)

    by RiotXIX (230569) on Sunday October 03 2004, @06:41PM (#10423060) Journal
    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).

    • Answer (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Yes, your eyes will shortly fall out of their sockets.

      Hopefully you're able to read this before that happens.

  • I know a certain coworker... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 03 2004, @06:44PM (#10423075)
    ... who is coming in to a new background image on their machine.

  • Appropriate Penny Arcade Reference (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Vaystrem (761) on Sunday October 03 2004, @06:45PM (#10423080)
    "The page is on a .jp uni server so they SHOULD be able to handle the herd of rhinos that is ./."

    Baby vs Rhino. [penny-arcade.com]

    That baby... er server doesn't have a prayer.

  • Dale Purves at the Duke Medical Center (Score:5, Interesting)

    by maceo1023 (632449) on Sunday October 03 2004, @06:54PM (#10423135)
    The laboratory of Dale Purves at the Duke University Medical Center is also researching visual illusions. Check out www.purveslab.net [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? (Score:4, Informative)

    by Frappuccino (813206) on Sunday October 03 2004, @07:04PM (#10423184)
    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/ [archive.org]

    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!

  • PDF doesn't suck. (Score:3)

    by 1010011010 (53039) on Sunday October 03 2004, @07:04PM (#10423185) Homepage
    It's excellent for what it does, and it beats the pants off Word .doc format as a distribution format.

  • Bathroom Wallpaper (Score:5, Funny)

    by Superfreaker (581067) on Sunday October 03 2004, @07:08PM (#10423198) Homepage Journal
    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.

    • Computer Room Wallpaper (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Webmoth (75878) on Monday October 04 2004, @12:44AM (#10425600) Homepage
      One of my customers had the computer sitting in the corner, so as you face the computer, you're also facing the corner.

      The trouble was, the wallpaper was vertical blue and white stripes, each about 1 inch (2,5 cm) wide, covering both walls.

      Sitting at the computer, seeing the striped wallpaper in your peripheral vision, you would get the unnerving feeling the monitor was attacking you, slowly approaching you, menacingly. (It didn't help that the monitor was on an elevated platform, so you actually had to look up at it.)

      After a few years, they covered the wallpaper with wood paneling.

  • Speaking as a rhino... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Takuryu (759826) on Sunday October 03 2004, @07:38PM (#10423331)
    We prefer the term "crash" to refer to a gathering of us... herds are so... blaise.

    Congregations of other animals have different terms...

    A murder of crows
    A gaggle of geese
    A pounce of cats
    An ambush of tigers

    More can be found here [cartage.org.lb].

  • The good doctor... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by eddy (18759) on Sunday October 03 2004, @07:51PM (#10423373) Homepage Journal

    ... should use PNG instead of GIF. First, as we all know, PNG aren't animated, so no-one will be fooled into thinking that maybe these are animated gifs ;-)

    But jesting aside; 310097 rotsnake.gif vs 262253 rotsnake.png, 46.7KB saved for that single image, or about ten seconds download time for a modem user.

  • More visual intrigue (Score:3, Interesting)

    by wombatmobile (623057) on Sunday October 03 2004, @07:56PM (#10423410)

    .

    Ramachandran's optical illusions [ucsd.edu]

    Johansson's point-light walker (Flash animation) [ruhr-uni-bochum.de]

  • Cool illusion: motion-induced blindness (Score:5, Interesting)

    by FleaPlus (6935) on Sunday October 03 2004, @08:05PM (#10423449) Homepage Journal
    A very cool illusion is available here [questforco...usness.com]. 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.

  • Can you undo the illusion? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by TrentL (761772) on Sunday October 03 2004, @08:43PM (#10423655) Homepage
    I've always wondered about this. We know about those grid illusions where the intersections appear to be darker than they are, or the "rotation" illusion in the article. But can you undo the illusion? Can you offset the color and remove the "dark intersection" problem? Can you curve shapes the opposite way and undo illusions of curve?

    • Re:t-shirts? (Score:5, Funny)

      by InfiniteWisdom (530090) on Sunday October 03 2004, @07:24PM (#10423286) Homepage
      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!

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