Presented below is a video that was another finalist for the 2013 Best Illusion of the Year contest hosted by the Neural Correlate Society.  The video shows four yellow circles spinning at the same speed around both the Roadrunner and and the very hungry Coyote.  Watch what happens when the four circles spinning around the [...]

The orange and purple circles appear to be spinning in a counter-clockwise direction.

Stare at the black dot in the center of this image and watch the red stripes spin.  At first, they should appear to be moving in a clockwise direction.  After a short while, however, they will suddenly appear to reverse and start moving counter-clockwise. If you lie on the ground and look directly up at [...]

In 1804, an interesting effect was discovered by Ignaz Troxler.  He noticed that something strange would happen if you fixated your eyes on one particular point (see the red dot below) for about 15-30 seconds.   When doing so, images in your peripheral vision (the blurry blue circle below) would fade away and eventually disappear [...]

We’ll start off 2013 with a very colorful and powerful motion illusion.  The circles appear to swirl all around the purple background.

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.

If you stare at the center of this pattern designed by Ramiro Chavez Tovar, you should see a series of nonexistent black radial lines coming from the center of the image to the outer edge.  Some people have also reported seeing colors and peripheral rotation.