James Hopkins created this sculpture titled Kyle, Stan, Cartman & Kenny in 2006 for a private collection.  It is made from acrylic plastic and also happens to be an optical illusion.  Can you figure out why?

This is actually an anamorphic sculpture that only resembles the South Park gang when viewed from one specific angle.  A photograph from a different angle reveals the illusion.

Some of my favorite stereograms incorporate realistic photographic elements with a hidden image component.  Stereogram master Gene Levine has perfected this technique by injecting stereograms into realistic scenes.  His latest book titled Incredible 3D Eye Tricks features one hundred such “scene” stereograms created by himself and co-author Gary W. Priester.  Before you try to find the hidden message in the sign, can you guess what it says?

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Using an LCD screen, a transparent overlay and four yellow Post-It Notes, Brusspup creates his own version of the moving square illusion.

According to Brusspup:

There are 2 sets of lines moving back and forth perpendicularly but when the paper squares are placed on the screen the lines suddenly appear to be a square moving in a circular motion.

This is an excellent example of the way in which our eyes deceive us.  In the street view shown below, the line AB looks to be much longer than line CD.  If you measure them, however, you will find that they are exactly the same length.

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Within the larger gray and blue squares are two smaller squares.  The small square on the left appears to be a blue or violet color while the small square on the right appears to be gray.  They are, in fact, the same color.

Do they look the same to you?

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Stare at the blinking green dot in the center of this animated image.  As you do, you will begin to experience a motion induced blindness.  The three yellow dots will start to randomly disappear and reappear.  Sometimes you will notice that one is missing and other times it may seem that two or all three are missing.  The yellow dots do not disappear at all, they are always present.  This can be confirmed by watching the animation for a while without fixating on the blinking green dot.

The grid presented below looks normal in the center section but “broken” on the left and right sides.  Stare at the center of the rectangle for 15-30 seconds and notice what happens to the “broken” portions of the grid.  Do they seem to repair themselves before your very eyes?

Ryota Kanai from Utrecht University in The Netherlands discovered this illusion.  It was also a finalist in the 2005 Best Illusion of the Year Contest.