Can you figure out what this California vanity license plate created by Gene Levine says?

If you are having trouble viewing the hidden message in this mapped textured stereogram image, please see the reveal below.

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While visiting Drudge Report on the afternoon of Tuesday April 22, I was surprised (and excited) to see an older motion optical illusion from 2006 by Japanese artist Miwa Miwa right in the middle of the page.  Miwa Miwa’s image, inspired by his love of Alfred Hitchcock movies, accompanied a link to a story about a man who had vertigo so bad that it left him spinning for 138 days.  While you may experience some vertigo-like feelings when you view this image, the good news is that all you have to do is look away in order to make it stop.

If you want to experience even more vertigo, have a look at the Moving Mona Lisa Face by Akiyoshi Kitaoka or the Purple Nurple Optical Illusion.

And here is a screenshot of the illusion on Drudge Report.

(via Miwa Miwa)

The owner of this van used a creative vehicle wrap to give the impression that a convertible sports car was parked next to it.  I have never seen anything like this in person, but I would imagine that it would look pretty funny driving down the road.

(via Optical Spy)

Upon playing this video, the introduction warns the viewer as follows:

Be aware!  This video may cause temporary hallucinogenic effects.  But please do not be afraid, these effects usually last a few seconds.

The warning is overly dramatic, but it does produce a pretty amazing effect.  And in case you are worried, rest assured that this is not some sort of joke or trick where a scary face will pop up on the screen screaming at you in an effort to make you fall from your chair.  If you do happen to think these are funny, however, you can watch a couple of kids getting scared by one here.

When I tried it, everything I looked at for a few seconds was swirling around like crazy.  Did it work for you?

This is one of my favorite designs from acclaimed Malaysian t-shirt designer Chow Hon Lam (aka Flying Mouse).  I think that I am drawn to it because it is a relatively simple design that also happens to be extremely clever.  In many respects, it reminds me of another great design called Light Painter by Tang Yau Hoong.

(via Flying Mouse 365)

We featured a post last year about ambiguous metal sculptures that can be created using photographs of your own face.  The sculptures can either look like two faces looking at each other, or a vase (or candlestick if you have a look at the post referenced above).  The design is based on psychologist Edgar Rubin’s figure / ground research from the early 20th century.

In the video example below, a small twist is applied in that the vase is not perfectly symmetrical.  As it rotates on a turntable, the asymmetry gives the impression that the two faces are deep in conversation with each other.

Try to observe both the talking faces and the rotating vase at the same time.  You will find that it is not possible as you can only focus on one interpretation of this figure at any given time.  This unique vase was created by Hiromi Wake.

I came across this portrait in a section of Akiyoshi Kitaoka’s website where he posts optical illusions submitted by friends and other people inspired by his work.  This particular portrait was created by painter Fumito ITO and depicts a man with glasses, black hair, mustache, and a goatee.  Can you spot what is so remarkable about this portrait?

Continue reading the full post to see the answer.

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