As you move your eyes around this image, the purple and yellow grapes appear to rotate around in circles.  Be careful with this one, you might start to get a little bit dizzy if you look at it for too long! To see more rotating circles, take a look back at the motion illusion in […]

Using Legos and two colors of M&Ms, Mary Coffelt, Briena Heller, and Michael McCamy created the following optical illusion at Martinez-Conde and Macknik Laboratories, Barrow Neurological Institute.  The way that the candies are arranged on the checkered Lego pattern, the object appears to bulge even though the surface is flat.  This bulge illusion was originally […]

The yellow arrows on the purple background below appear to move independently to the left and the right.  Specifically, the top and bottom rows of arrows seem to have the most significant amount of motion for me.  If you are having trouble getting this static image to move, try staring at it while moving your […]

Over the past few months, we have had several requests for a mobile version of An Optical Illusion.  We listened.  Now you can view a simplified version of the site on your mobile device.  At the bottom of the layout, you will also have the option to turn the new layout off and view the […]

In this work from Professor Akiyoshi Kitaoka, each of the four fields appears to expand and move toward you.  Like all of these motion illusions, the more you move your eyes around the image, the stronger the effect.  Try to hold your eyes still by looking at one location and the movement will cease. Visit […]

In one of professor Akiyoshi Kitaoka’s latest works, each of the nine disks appears to expand.  This image can cause an uneasy feeling if you look it too long, so if you start to feel dizzy or nauseous make sure you scroll down or look away! The effect reminds me of that seen in the […]

When it comes to creating motion illusions, Akiyoshi Kitaoka is in a league of his own.  In one of his latest examples below, titled Beating Heart, the pink and red heart appears to move on top of a green background.   If you slowly scroll the page up and down while looking at the image, it […]