GET A MOVE ON
Mind-boggling optical illusion tricks viewers into thinking man is running in motion
THIS mind-boggling optical illusion will force you to question just how accurate your eyesight really is.
It seems quite a simple question - is the man on the screen really running in motion?
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But believe it or not, he is perfectly still. It is merely your mind playing tricks on you and manipulating your perception.
The barmy brain teaser is an example of an animation illusion, which were first discovered by Max Wertheimer in 1912.
During an experiment involving lamps, he realised light would jump from one to another when he turned them on and off in quick succession.
Experts dub this mirage of the mind the "Phi Phenomenon", which works by presenting a series of static images right after each other.
As the pictures appear so quickly after one another, the brain is fooled into thinking it is moving.
In this extraordinary illusion, appearing to show a "running man", the figure is covered by a sweeping curtain of thick black lines.
The "moving" male is only visible via the thin white lines in between, which seem to move across from the left to the right of the pic.
As the brain is only able to process up to 12 images each second, the illusion of movement is created.
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This deceives the mind as the image in this animation is constantly replaced within that time.
It's a process known as the "persistence of vision".
Often optical illusions use shapes, space, postion, colour contrasts and lines to fool our minds into thinking images are moving when they are not.
Some scientists believe it may be caused by involuntary eye movements.
Others think motion detectors in our visual cortex can be overwhelmed by the change in neurons and movement is triggered.
This clever image appears to show coloured rectangles rotate - even though they are perfectly still.
And this trippy animation appears to show a stickman climbing stairs and jumping, but your eyes are very much deceiving you.
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If you're into optical illusions, don't miss this pair of unbelievable images tricking people into believing they are moving.
Even though they are both stationary, moving your head from side-to-side or scrolling the web page up and down deceives our eyes into thinking it's shaking.
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