An optical illusion (also called a visual illusion) is characterized by visually perceived images that differ from objective reality. The information gathered by the eye is processed in the brain to give aperception that does not tally with a physical measurement of the stimulus source.
There are three main types: literal optical illusions that create images that are different from the objects that make them, physiological ones that are the effects on the eyes and brain of excessive stimulation of a specific type (brightness, tilt, color, movement), and cognitive illusions where the eye and brain make unconscious inferences. They can also be known as "mind games".
This illusion is known as the Fraser spiral, the false spiral, or the twisted cord illusion. The overlapping black arc segments appear to form a spiral; however, the arcs are a series of concentric circles and there is no spiral drawn at all.
Rotation of the "wheels" occurs in relation to eye movements. Fixing your gaze should stop the rotation effect.
White’s illusion is an optical illusion illustrating the fact that the same target luminance can elicit different perceptions of brightness in different contexts. Although all of the gray rectangles are all of equal luminance, the ones seen in the context with the dark stripes appear brighter than the ones seen in the context with the bright stripes.
One type of motion illusion is a type of optical illusion in which a static image appears to be moving due to the cognitive effects of interacting color contrasts and shape position. To properly view this effect, click the image above to see the full sized version.
The Kanizsa triangle is an optical illusion first described by the Italian psychologist Gaetano Kanizsa in 1955. In the image above, a white equilateral triangle is perceived, but in fact n triangle is drawn.
The Hermann grid illusion is an optical illusion reported by Ludimar Hermann in 1870 while, incidentally, reading John Tyndall’s Sound. The illusion is characterised by “ghostlike” grey blobs perceived at the intersections of a white (or light-colored) grid on a black background. The grey blobs disappear when looking directly at an intersection.
The Orbison illusion is an optical illusion that was first described by the psychologist William Orbison in 1939. The bounding rectangle and inner square both appear distorted in the presence of the radiating lines. The background gives us the impression there is some sort of perspective. As a result, our brain sees the shape distorted.
The image shows what appears to be a black and white checker-board with a green cylinder resting on it that casts a shadow diagonally across the middle of the board. The two squares A and B are identical but appear very different as a result of the illusion. The black and white squares are actually different shades of gray.
The Jastrow illusion is an optical illusion discovered by the American psychologist Joseph Jastrow in 1889. In this illustration, the two figures are identical, although the lower one appears to be larger.
The café wall illusion is an optical illusion, first described by Doctor Richard Gregory. He observed this curious effect in the tiles of the wall of a café at the bottom of St Michael’s Hill, Bristol. This optical illusion makes the parallel straight horizontal lines appear to be bent. To construct the illusion, alternating light and dark “bricks” are laid in staggered rows. It is essential for the illusion that each “brick” is surrounded by a layer of “mortar” (the grey in the image). This should ideally be of a color in between the dark and light color of the “bricks”.
The Necker cube is an ambiguous line drawing. It is a wire-frame drawing of a cube in isometric perspective, which means that parallel edges of the cube are drawn as parallel lines in the picture. When two lines cross, the picture does not show which is in front and which is behind. This makes the picture ambiguous; it can be interpreted two different ways. When a person stares at the picture, it will often seem to flip back and forth between the two valid interpretations (so-called multistable perception).
The Poggendorff Illusion is an optical illusion that involves the brain’s perception of the interaction between diagonal lines and horizontal and vertical edges. It is named after Johann Poggendorff (1796-1877), a German physicist who first described it in 1860. In the image above, a straight black and red line is obscured by a grey rectangle. The blue line appears, instead of the red line, to be the same as the black one, which is clearly shown not to be the case in the second picture.
Tired after all of those illusions? Here is a good place to sit down and relax for a while.