Fascinating Optical Illusions

Optical illusions commonly play on the eyes focusing on a particular color and switching to focus on an area of the image that uses an 'opposite' color, using what is called the 'after-image' to create the illusion.

The other aspect of optical illusions are the use of lines and size.

The lines in this image appear to be curved, but if you use a ruler, you'll notice that the lines are all completely straight, it's the slight displacement of each square that is causing the curved affect.

These illusions don't tend to work for everyone, but are also very cool. Look at the picture closely, what do you see? Some people will simply see a blob of black ink, others will see a man playing a saxaphone, and some will see a womens face.

Illusions like this one rely on the eyes associating the image with familiar experiences.

The phsychology of optical illusions is a deep and intricate topic, but in general optical illusions do work on every seeing person to a certain extent. There is evidence to support the arguement that various traits effect the way individuals perceive optical illusions. For example, the way females perceive particular illusions may differ from the way males see them. It's also beleived that left handed people will get a different impression from right handed individuals. For example, in the case of the image above, a left handed person may be 10X more likely to see the man playing a saxaphone, while a right handed person may be more likely to see the woman's face.

Although all of the images on this page, as well as most popular illusions are used for entertainment purposes, the use of optical illusions and subliminal messaging as a marketing tool is becoming more and more common. The use of cleverly placed products, or hidden logo's is a scary, but very effective marketing tool for companies with the budget and motivation to research and incorporate optical illusion phsychology into their marketing.

For most, optical illusions are a great source of intrigue and entertainment, being able to see a moving image on a piece of paper is a very exciting experience.