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 [...]

In this square, the corridor part  (in between the green lines) appears to be tinted a light green.  In reality, this section of the square is entirely white. This image was drawn by Professor Akiyoshi Kitaoka in 2007 for Visiome.

The round inset in the middle appears to move.  This illusion, created by Professor Akiyoshi Kitaoka, is a variation of the Ouchi Illusion. More incredible motion illusions can be found on Akiyoshi Kitaoka’s site.

The Ouchi illusion is named after Japanese artist Hajime Ouchi.  The central disk with vertical black and white bars appears to float above the background with the horizontal black and white bars. This version of the Ouchi illusion was drawn by Japanese profressor Akiyoshi Kitaoka for Visiome in 2005.

The Mona Lisa was painted by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci in the early 1500′s.  Since that time, it has become one of the most famous and recognized works of art in the world.  It is hard to imagine that da Vinci would have foreseen the following incarnation of his painting by Akiyoshi Kitaoka, but [...]

Akiyoshi Kitaoka is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan.  He is well known for his work developing and trying to understand anomalous motion illusions.  His most famous work is Rotating Snakes where a series of circular snakes appear to rotate spontaneously.  Upon releasing this work to the public [...]