I have just been sent this stunning illusion (thanks to @ButMadNNW and @glennbroadway from Twitter, illusion from here)..
It seems impossible, but the small diamond shapes are actually arranged in straight lines. I have put some thick vertical lines through them to prove that this is the case – exactly the same is also true of the horizontal shape
What thinks you? Do you find it amazing? Any good explanations?
July 21, 2009 at 7:04 am |
great illusion…still trying to think of an explanation..
July 21, 2009 at 7:09 am |
It’s the orientation of the little diamonds. The squares seem to tilt in different directions depending on how the black and white sections of the little diamonds are faced.
July 21, 2009 at 7:17 am |
Thanks for the thanks, but credit where credit is due! Mr glennbroadway actually sent that to you first – I RT’d his tweet.
July 21, 2009 at 7:18 am
http://twitter.com/glennbroadway/status/2712557349
July 21, 2009 at 7:27 am |
That is very interesting to say the least.
July 21, 2009 at 8:03 am |
Your vertical lines do not go through the dots in the same place. In some dots it goes through the center and some it goes along the sides. Therefor they are not in straight lines.
July 21, 2009 at 8:18 am |
Interesting. If I look at each line individually I can see they are straight except for the middle ones. Try as I might they dont straighten for me.
July 21, 2009 at 8:26 am |
It make me crazy!
July 21, 2009 at 10:25 am |
@Sage
The lines admittedly don’t go through the dots in the same place, but that’s only because Professor Wiseman’s grid is slightly misaligned with the image – it’s a uniform effect, though, and clearly shows that they ARE in straight lines.
July 21, 2009 at 10:49 am |
It’s gotta be the blue and grey “squares.” However, I’ve found that if you close one eye (either eye in my case, though perhaps this works differently for others) you can, sometimes, see that the black diamond shapes are aligned both horizontally and vertically. Even so it still throws me off a bit.
FANTASTIC illusion! I expect it is the shape of the “squares” that gives us trouble. If you look at them a bit more closely, they’re hardly square at all. I imagine some clever photoshop genius can remove the black diamonds and show us the real “squares” for what they are – more like circles, diminishing in size towards the center. (I think!)
July 21, 2009 at 9:34 pm
I removed the black diamonds in Photoshop, and the squares are indeed square (apart from missing chunks in the corner where the diamonds reside), uniformly sized, and perfectly aligned.
I notice that the diamond pairs aren’t quite centred on the corners of the squares, so my guess is that your brain “moves” the corners of the squares to fit the higher-contrast diamonds?
July 21, 2009 at 11:05 am |
So interesting.
July 21, 2009 at 11:27 am |
Does anyone else get this secondary effect?
when you look at the image without the lines it appears that the grid is raised in the centre.
but the image with the lines appears to recede in the centre?
July 21, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Yep,I see that as well.
July 21, 2009 at 11:34 am |
I think Aly is right. Look at the upper left quadrant, for example. All the darker squares have white diamonds on the lower left and upper right dark diamonds on the upper left and lower right. I think your eyes are sort of averaging the squares with the diamonds and thus giving all the squares a bit of a right-leaning tilt. It’s like the black diamond on the bottom right is pulling it down a little to the right. All the light squares in that quadrant have a white diamonds on the lower right, so they are also “tilted” to the right.
If you follow this through for each quadrant, you’ll see that the appropriate colors are in the appropriate places to give either a left or right tilt.
July 21, 2009 at 11:53 am |
Another brilliant illusion! Yes Pete, I too get the “raised/lowered in the middle” effect. I also see the original (without the lines) as really strongly divided into 4 quadrants. Woah, makes my eyes go buzzy!
July 21, 2009 at 12:19 pm |
[...] Wiseman re-posted another great optical illusion this morning which was tweeted to him by @ButMadNNW and @glennbroadway. I think it was originally [...]
July 21, 2009 at 12:22 pm |
The raised lowered after effect is pretty cool. I have started having a play with the pattern that the black diamonds are in to try and influence a shape. So far my experiments have only resulted in a headache and the possible illusion of zig zags
July 21, 2009 at 12:31 pm |
Interesting… if I let my eyes go out of focus on it, the squares actually line up, but looking straight at it, they seem crooked. If Aly’s right, maybe that is because once I lose focus on the (smaller) diamond shapes, the illusion falls apart?
July 21, 2009 at 1:36 pm |
very cool
I think it is the orientation of the squares that is important as well as their shape and the illusion is a result of a combination of both.
If you look closely the squares along the central line from top to bottom all appear to perfectly level (lets say 0 degrees) but go one square to the left and it looks like it is very slightly tilted (say +1 deg). One square to the right also tilted (-1 deg).
The squares on the central line from left to right also appear to be level but if you go up or down by one – again there appears to be a slight tilt.
I agree with the shape of the squares being distorted – look especially at the last grey square on the central line from left to right. It doesn’t look square at all.
Hang on – now it does.
No – it’s gone again.
OH SWEET LORD I’M LOSING MY MIND
July 21, 2009 at 1:43 pm |
First noticed that the double-diamonds are aligned vertically and horizontally as every other (vertical, horizontal, vertical..) except along both the central horizontal row and central vertical row, where the direction of the double-diamonds are in pairs. Then noticed, at the center, all four double-diamonds are aligned in the same direction.
So, looks like to create this, one would start at the center with four similarly aligned double-diamonds; then along the central and horizontal rows, add pairs of (similarly aligned) double-diamonds; and then fill in the rest with the every-other (not pairs).
Not sure if it matters for the illusion, but the periwinkle-colored shapes look eight-sided, not square.
July 21, 2009 at 3:46 pm |
Burd, the squares are not tilted. They just look like they’re tilted because of the colors of the diamonds affecting your perception of the bottom line. The light colored squares appear to tilt down to the side where there is a white diamond at the bottom and the dark colored squares appear to tilt down to the side where there is a dark diamond. But they’re not really tilted; your eye is just averaging the colors and get the feeling that it’s tilted. The diamonds at the top are opposite, adding to the illusion.
Each of the four quadrants appears tilted either to the left or right according to the arrangement of the diamonds.
July 21, 2009 at 4:09 pm |
I would love a linoleum pattern like this for my kitchen floor.
July 21, 2009 at 8:38 pm
that made me laugh out loud and disturb people in the computer lab lol
July 21, 2009 at 5:21 pm |
the other cool thing is that the circles are also aliged.
I’ll have to play with this in Adobe Illstrator when I get a chance, just to make sure…
July 21, 2009 at 5:50 pm |
The movement vertically seems to compress from the center to the edge – and the movement horizontally seems to expand from the center to the edge. Looking at the image sideways, the compression and expansion seem to switch: expands vertically, compresses horizontally,
July 21, 2009 at 6:07 pm |
[...] JavaScript application of the Bent Lines Illusion I blogged about earlier which was a re-post of this Richard Wiseman blog [...]
July 22, 2009 at 1:08 am |
[...] Another stunning illusion I have just been sent this stunning illusion (thanks to @ButMadNNW and @glennbroadway from Twitter, illusion from [...] [...]
July 22, 2009 at 2:06 am |
Wonderful! As weirdly dynamic as the work of Akiyoshi Kitaoka, which has been showing up in dorm rooms all over the world…
July 22, 2009 at 2:55 am |
woah dude this is awsome
July 22, 2009 at 2:59 am |
odd, they all looked straight to me at first. xD I had to make myself see the illusion. o.o
July 22, 2009 at 4:23 am |
its ,picture very expensive . yes my aim its idea very expensive.
July 22, 2009 at 4:25 am |
Abraham Lincoln says Ahmadinejad’s victory is an even better illusion, that is his victory in one-on-one basketball…
LINCOLN SAYS UNCOOL
http://lincolnsaysuncool.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/lincoln-says-uncool-mahmoud-ahmadinejad/
July 22, 2009 at 5:24 am |
Wow! This is an awsome illusion. I try and i try to look at it from all angles and i still cant explain it. All i can think of is that its probably the contrast of the round vs the diamond shapes in right angles thats making this happen. But hey…i am still wondering!
Zeenat
Positive Provocations or Mind Body And Soul= http://zeenatsyal.wordpress.com
July 22, 2009 at 6:57 am |
wow, how is it doing that???
July 22, 2009 at 7:01 am |
If you stare at the image the squares change to circles.
July 22, 2009 at 10:20 am |
Abraham Lincoln says Ahmadinejad’s victory is an even better illusion, that is his victory in one-on-one basketball…
July 22, 2009 at 11:43 am |
This hurts my eyes.
July 23, 2009 at 8:50 am |
That really messes with your eyes after a bit if u keep lookin at it….
you’d be able to put a subliminal msg in tht if tht was possible.. tht would be cool..
September 6, 2009 at 9:29 pm |
i think this illusion is a matter of these little squares.