An optical illusion with nothing to do with the fact she's naked

[IBM]

Amazing how effective the word 'naked' is for getting people into a thread, isn't it?

Watch the figure in the middle change direction by focusing on the figures to the left or right.

[zain]

Left eye sees different from the right?

[Saracen]

That is ..... weird. And very interesting.

[Funkstar]

I can see the teft and center turning clockwise, and the right turning anti-clockwise when focusing on the right.

Thats weird isn't it?

[Stoo]

They change direction?

[Saracen]

They change direction?

Do they? Or do they just appear to?

Isn't that the point?

[PeterStoba]

Either this is too complex so my eyes are going funny and not seeing it as it should, or it's a lie?

[Stoo]

Sorry, too subtle there for a forum post, it was more along the lines of "I was too busy staring at twirling naked silhouettes to notice"...

[santa claus]

Focussing on the right and centre image she turns clockwise; focussing on left and centre, she turns anti-clockwise. This is very interesting, send her to my bedroom for further scientific study.

[jim]

Looks to me as if the woman in the middle is turning in the same direction as the woman on the left, but crucially when she turns towards you, it has exactly the same effect as turning away from you because it's a silhouette with no visual depth.

In other words, from the point at which her arm is at 90 degrees to our view, her arm moves closer towards the centre... whether she's moving towards you, or moving away from you, so you can choose the direction in which to visualise her movement. Or I'm completely wrong

Whatever the case, it's a very good illusion.

[Saracen]

Sorry, too subtle there for a forum post, it was more along the lines of "I was too busy staring at twirling naked silhouettes to notice"...

Gotcha. Along the lines of a photo of a gorgeous blonde bird draped over the bonnet of a sleek supercar, and saying "what car??"

Or, depending on your gender and/or proclivities .... what blonde?

[Powderhound]

I think it works because the side figures have coloured lines acting as directional cues to indicate which way she's facing and therefore which way she's turning. Since the middle figure lacks these, your brain defaults to whichever outcome is concurrent with the other image you are currently focusing on.

[scaryjim]

Rather old one this, isn't it?

It used to go around without the highlighted figures, and I can generally choose which way she's turning (with a little concentration). The interesting thing for me is that I can actually make the marked ones turn in the opposite direction for about 120 degrees before my brain tells me that someone's leg can't do that and I should stop pratting about - at which point I see it turning the "correct" way...


p.s.

Amazing how effective the word 'naked' is for getting people into a thread, isn't it?

You had me at "optical illusion"...

[razer121]

omg...i really just cannot work it out...

[Kumagoro]

I have noticed something else interesting about it. If I cover the left one and have the middle
and right go in the same anti clockwise direction and then cover the right one, the middle one
will switch to clockwise. If I do it the other way around and cover the right first it doesn't
switch and keeps going clockwise like the left.

I got the wife to do it and its the opposite for her. We are both left eye dominant but I am
left handed and she is right handed, so I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

[Stoo]

Gotcha. Along the lines of a photo of a gorgeous blonde bird draped over the bonnet of a sleek supercar, and saying "what car??"

Or, depending on your gender and/or proclivities .... what blonde?

That's the one

ooh, this is odd, by concentrating on the middle one only, I'm getting a weird figure of eight effect.. nice, she's turned herself into a pretzel