This is another optical illusion that should be included on every study of the history of optical illusions. It is named Ouchi after the person who invented it. There are many things going on in this picture that add to the illusion. First, the circular shape leaves the edges ambiguous to our eyes, so we can’t tell quite where the image begins and where it ends. This will cause the illusory movement that you see. Another thing about this optical illusion is that our eyes might perceive all the bars to be the same size, as if we are looking through a hole in the middle of the picture, and the bars are farther away in the middle. As if we are looking through the aperture of a camera lens. This also works well if you print it out on a piece of paper and move the paper around!
This is such an under-rated optical illusion. A true classic that everyone needs to see! Stare at it and scroll your browser window up and down! Another thing you can do is to move your head left and right, that’s right, use those casters on your desk chair and work it, work it! You’ve got to move it move it!
How it works:
It has something to do with the fact that your eyes and brain cannot figure out that this picture is really flat. Together, they want to perceive it as a 3D ball in the center, or that these two shapes would normally be sitting on top of each other, and not be the same object.
Also spelled with the little vertical line over the O, like this: Ōuchi illusion. Ōuchi was the artist that first published this illusion, and so he named it after himself! Hajime Ōuchi was from Japan and published it in 1973.
