Optical Illusions: The Science of Visual Perception / Edition 3

Optical Illusions: The Science of Visual Perception / Edition 3

by Al Seckel
ISBN-10:
1554071518
ISBN-13:
9781554071517
Pub. Date:
01/01/2009
Publisher:
Firefly Books, Limited
ISBN-10:
1554071518
ISBN-13:
9781554071517
Pub. Date:
01/01/2009
Publisher:
Firefly Books, Limited
Optical Illusions: The Science of Visual Perception / Edition 3

Optical Illusions: The Science of Visual Perception / Edition 3

by Al Seckel

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Overview

This intriguing collection contains more than 275 optical illusions that appear to change before your eyes. Al Seckel carefully selected both well-known images, such as Shepard's tabletop, Wade's spiral, Ames room and Rubin's face/vase, and many lesser-known, but no less effective, illusions.

Every type of optical illusion is here, along with notes about the science of each visual perception and how the illusions work. Among the baffling images and shapes are:

  • Figure/ground illusions, in which one shape switches into another then back again
  • Ambiguous figures
  • Impossible objects
  • Trompe l'oeil
  • Stereo illusions.
  • With illusions rendered in photography, artwork and computer imaging, and a huge variety of themes and effects, Optical Illusions dazzles both the mind and the eye.


    Product Details

    ISBN-13: 9781554071517
    Publisher: Firefly Books, Limited
    Publication date: 01/01/2009
    Series: Illusion Works
    Edition description: Reprint
    Pages: 312
    Product dimensions: 9.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.88(d)

    About the Author

    Formerly at the California Institute of Technology, Al Seckel is a leading authority on visual and other types of sensory illusions. He is the author of 15 books on this subject, including the classic The Great Book of Optical Illusions. He is also well-known for his illusion column in National Geographic Kids magazine.

    Read an Excerpt

    THE GREAT BOOK OF OPTICAL ILLUSIONS


    By Al Seckel

    Firefly Books Ltd

    Copyright © 2002 Illusion Works
    All right reserved.

    ISBN: 1552976505


    Chapter One

    GALLERY I

    (1) Shepard's Tabletop: These two tabletops are absolutely identical in size and shape! If you don't believe it, trace only the tabletops and see for yourself.

    Previous page: Fraser's Spiral is one of the most powerful illusions known. What you see appears to be a spiral, but it is really a series of perfect concentric circles! This illusion is so powerful that it has been known to induce incorrect finger tracing!

    (2) Extent and Perspective: Although they appear to be dramatically different in length, lines AB and CD are equal.

    (3) The Scintillating Grid: The disks at the junctions will appear to flash when you move your eyes around this image.

    (4) Checker Shadow: The light check inside the shadow is identical to the dark check outside the shadow. If you don't believe it, cut out a peephole exactly the size of each square and test it!

    (5) Escher's Impossible Box. Belgian artist Matheau Haemakers, drawing his inspiration from a print by the Dutch graphic artist M.C. Esther, has created a physical model of an impossible box.

    (6) Ouchi Illusion: Move the page back and forth. The center section may appear to move in a direction different from its surroundings.The center section will also appear to be at a different depth.

    (7) Man on the Moon: This image of Buzz Aldrin's helmet was made out of a collage of space images.

    (8) Melancholy Tunes on a Flemish Winter's Day: Flemish artist Jos De Mey captured this incredible scene on a winter's day. How does that left column come forward?

    (9) Crazy Nuts: Can you figure out how the straight steel rod miraculously passes through the seemingly perpendicular holes?

    (10) Figure/Ground: What is hiding here? Before you check out the answer, search carefully, because once you perceive the hidden image, you will never be able to see this image in its meaningless state again.

    (11) Kissing Couple Illusion: An illusory kiss by American artist Jerry Downs.

    (12) Impossible Staircase: What happens when you walk around this peculiar staircase? Where is the bottom or top step located?

    (13) Ball and Shadow Illusion: Are the balls in the two illustrations in different positions relative to the background?

    (Continues...)



    Excerpted from THE GREAT BOOK OF OPTICAL ILLUSIONS by Al Seckel Copyright © 2002 by Illusion Works
    Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

    Table of Contents

    Preface

    Your Mind's Eye

    Illusions

    What's Going On?

    Glossary
    Further Reading
    Illusion Category Index
    Images Credits

    Preface

    Part of the fun of this book will involve being tricked, fooled, and misled. Being fooled has nothing to do with how smart you are, how cultured you are, how artistic you are or how old. You will be tricked. In fact, many of the illusions are so powerful you will doubt the written description. Others are so convincing, you will not know what the illusion is until you read the caption.

    This volume is by far the most comprehensive collection of illusions ever published. A good number come from recent work in vision and perception laboratories and others come from a variety of modern artists who have deliberately incorporated an illusion into a drawing, photograph, or sculpture. There are also quite a few illusions that have been created specially for this book. I have tried to provide a variety of different perceptual experiences. Many of the illusions in this book appear here for the first time in print. Of course, you will find the familiar classics here too.

    The chapter "Your Mind's Eye" puts the illusions into a framework of modern understanding. At the back of the book you will find a chapter "What's Going On?" that provides brief scientific explanations of our best guesses for why these effects occur and how they are consistent with the processes that mediate normal perception. There is also a glossary of technical terms that are used throughout the text, a category index so you can compare similar examples of the same type of illusion as well as suggestions for further reading.

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