Kyoto, Japan

Although we live in a WYSIWYG world in which “seeing is believing,” as a species, we’re actually quite easily fooled… which I quite enjoy. I’ve posted before (here) about the illusionary work of Akiyoshi Kitaoka, a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto. (Warning: his site “contains some works of ‘anomalous motion illusion,’ which might make sensitive observers dizzy or sick [e.g. epileptic seizures, which can happen if the brain can’t handle conflicting information from your two eyes]). Check out Akiyoshi’s latest visual illusions (along with lucid explanations of the related phenomena) here.

Images: the Rotating Snakes above appear to move in a circular fashion, though this is actually a still image; the Runway on the right appears to tilt from the vertical more than the one on the left, even though both are identical; similarly, the horizontally aligned rows of Chromosomes appear to tilt (though the lines are parallel). So don’t believe everything you see…