If you were driven crazy by those optical illusion pictures that were everywhere in the ’90s, prepare to be infuriated.
A experimental psychologist from Japan who studies visual perception tweets some of the most ingenious, and frustrating, images you’re likely to have seen recently, including this portrait of a man’s smiling face that’s only visible if you look at it from a far-side angle.
Akiyoshi Kitaoka from the Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto explains how he created the picture, by mixing a tiny grid patterns and a normal photograph of a man’s face. He says he doesn’t have a name for the phenomenon but describes it as “Hhgh-spatial-frequency components disturb[in] the perception of low-contrast objects”.
If you;r struggling to see it even after viewing the image at an angle, he advises looking at it from a distance or just scrolling up and down with your mouse.
Some of Kitaoka’s other tweets are just as entertaining, such as these ‘moving’ squares, ‘waving’ grapes, ‘spiral’ eyeballs and ‘twirling’ circles.
Kitaoka has many other optical illusions on his website but it comes with a warning: “Some pictures on this website can cause dizziness or might possibly [cause] epileptic seizers. The latter happens when the brain can’t handle the conflicting information from your two eyes. If you start to feel unwell when using this website, immediately cover one eye with your hand and then leave the page. Do not close your eyes because that can make the attack worse.”
He’s not alone in this interest. Matt Lieberman, a neuroscientist at the University College of Los Angeles, tweeted this surprising image last night.