Anomalous Motion Illusion

[dougo]

A couple weeks ago, someone forwarded an eye-popping illusion to a mailing list I'm on, and I've been mesmerized by it. Now, thanks to Ed Pegg Jr.'s latest mathpuzzle.com update, I found the source: Akiyoshi Kitaoka's page of illusions. There's all sorts of cool stuff there, including the original U-zu-maki (Rabbits' spirals) (minus the UPC sticker). Here's another pretty one, "Primrose's Field":

Comments

[elthar.livejournal.com]

MY EYES

[rawrin.livejournal.com]

Ow.

[jesserud.livejournal.com]

If I just look at "primrose's field", my eyes hurt but I don't see a lot of motion. But if I scroll a page containing it (such as this page), the vertical motion causes the image to appear to warp.

How to get a strong illusion

[(Anonymous)]

Try staring at the center and moving away from or towards the picture.