Thursday, October 11, 2007

Change directions, tiny dancer

Is the dancer in this optical illusion turning clockwise or counter-clockwise?

At first I refused to believe this even was an optical illusion. I mean, she's obviously turning clockwise! I mean, just look at her fer cryin' out loud!

I tried to make myself see her spinning the other way but I got nothing. Then, suddenly, after looking for something like a full minute, she finally switched direction. Then it became obvious that she was spinning counter-clockwise! (Tip: if you're having trouble getting her to switch directions, try staring at a point a couple of inches below her feet.)

If you mostly see her spinning clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa for counter-clockwise. (via Kottke)




Very nice video of some 3-D optical illusions. That "Bending Tube" illusion in the middle there really freaks me out for some reason.




Cool Face Illusion

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4 comments:

Tuwa said...

That dancer optical illusion drives me crazy because I know she's *supposed* to be turning one way or the other, but what it looks like to me is that she turns one way slightly and then turns the other, and back and forth she goes forever.

captnkurt said...

Reading through some of the comments on the site where the illusion resides, I see that others have a similar experience to yours, Tuwa. So it looks kind of like she's doing "The Twist" or something? Rotating 90? 180? degrees of an arc one way, then coming back the opposite way, back and forth?

Me, it almost always starts clockwise and only with some effort does it switch.

captnkurt said...

BTW Tuwa,

Are you ever going to open up the Shanty again??

Tuwa said...

Not even 90 degrees, probably more like 30.

I don't know about the Shanty; maybe some day. For now there are lots of things going on personally keeping me from it. Thanks for asking though.