Optical illusion: If you stare at this image something strange will happen

Is it actually possible to stop being surprised byoptical illusions? While 2022 offered us its share of viral images, brain-teasing puzzles and unsolvable riddles, 2023 is already giving quite challenging ones as well. The proof is in this optical illusion, published on social media, which looks like a magic trick.

Still numbers (?)

So what do we see in this famous image? Like many illustrations that go viral, this one was posted by the account @AkiyoshiKitaoka on Twitter. It simply shows a series of numbers, in this case, 4s, 6s and 9s in green (or yellowish), set against a plain purple background.

On the surface of it, there is nothing unusual about this image, which is supposed to be still. However, something strange happens when you fixate on one number or the other...

Movement in a still image

Indeed, the figures around those still seem to be moving. However, as you can see from the image properties, this is not a video! Like many optical illusions of this kind, this effect is due to the way our eyes interpret what they see, the colour and shapes having been chosen in such a way as to make our brain 'bug out'.

This article was translated from Gentside FR.

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