This is another optical illusion that should be included on every study
of the history of optical illusions. It is named Ouchi after the person
who invented it. There are many things going on in this picture that
add to the illusion. First, the circular shape leaves the edges ambigious
to our eyes, so we can't tell quite where the image begines and where
it ends. This will cause the illusory movement that you see. Another
thing about this optical illusion is that our eyes might perceive all
the bars to be the same size, as if we are looking through a hole in
the middle of the picture, and the bars are farther away in the middle.
As if we are looking through the aperature of a camera lens. This also
works well if you print it out on a peice of paper and move the paper
around!
This is such an under-rated optical illusion. A true classic that everyone needs to see! Stare at it and scroll your browser window up and down! Another thing you can do is to move your head left and right, that's right, use those casters on your desk chair and work it, work it! You've got to move it move it!
How it works:
It has something to do with the fact that your eyes and brain cannot figure out that this picture is really flat, together, they want to perceive it as a 3-d ball in the center, or that these two shapes would normally be sitting on top of eachother, and not be the same object.
Also spelled with the little vertical line over the O, like this: Ōuchi illusion. Ōuchi was the artist that first published this illusion, and so he named it after himself! Hajime Ōuchi was from Japan and published it in 1973.
Please rate this illusion/picture. Your ratings help us choose which new optical illusions to create:
Best of the Best ...
Most Popular for October 2009:
Same Shade Diamonds Our newest optical illusion.
We just created it on 10/10/2009
Wow! It will look like the diamonds on the top are much darker than the diamonds on the bottom.
You won't believe how amazing this incredible optical illusion is.
Watch as the scary faces disappear before your eyes.
The longer you stare the stronger the illusion. Perfect to send to your friends for Halloween!
The Obama Illusion
We made this original Barack Obama Illusion and then we made it famous!
Stare for about 30 seconds and you'll see his ghostly image appear on the wall!
Valentines Day Love Test Illusion
This is one of our most highly rated illusions by our visitors. Watch the hearts disappear before your very eyes!
This is really cool. You'll start to see the hearts disappear as you fixate at the center. Don't miss it.
Moving Spiral Illusion
A version of our original moving spiral illusion was recently published in a popular college textbook.
It uses multiple illusory principles to give the illusion that it is moving when it is absolutely not moving. Big enough to be your desktop background!
Build Your Own Impossible Triangle
Instructions so you can build your own impossible triangle. Tell M.C. Escher that it's not so impossible after all!
Comes with a printable PDF guide with dotted lines for the folds and clearly marked lines to cut. See pictures of visitors submitted triangles too!
If you don't have time to see the hundreds of illusions today, see if you can at least catch all of these...
