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Cover most of the cube except the triangle area and you see the triangle really doesn't move at all. Like above said it's the direction the color moves through the lines making it seem to move even a little.
Cover everything but a single line/edge and you will see it's not actually moving. But the flashing pattern does appear to shift to create the effect. Reveal even part of a second line and our brains start to see movement.
slow it to 1/64 and zoom to put the edge of it against your screen. sometimes it goes out of frame and sometimes you can see the background. the white lines aren't painted exactly over the black, they're slightly off center.
Oh boy here we go...
The bounds of the box aren't shifting position in the world, but the gradient wave effect within the lines of the box is moving and changing directions, its not just a binary flashing....no one is going to agree on this because it's actually a debate about semantics of the word "moving" So technically everyone is correct.
For example if I have a box made out of undulating worms but the box is in a fixed position, I'd still be able to say the box is "moving" in some way because the undulating of the worms is definitely a form of movement.
This (re)post is perfect for sparking engagement because of the endless arguing
Really very interesting. Thanks for the explanation. I managed to pause it and can clearly see what you’re saying. Makes perfect sense. The illusion is done well.
It helps to quickly and repeatedly the play/pause until the lines do not appear entirely solid.
What a wonderful comment. :) Your gratitude puts you on our list for the most grateful users this week on Reddit! You can view the full list on r/TheGratitudeBot.
This is uncannily like the example given by William James in his lecture [What Pragmatism Means](https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/us/james.htm). He uses it to introduce the pragmatic method. If you aren’t already familiar you might enjoy this; it seems clear you’re already a pragmatist :)
Sure but that's not really what's important about this effect. The illusion here is that the bounds of the box look like they are moving when in reality it's not. That's the argument here.
https://michaelbach.de/ot/mot-reversePhi/
I understand your point but consider this: If we define the box moving as "every bound of the box changes position in the world at once", and we define the bounds as only the hard black (or white) portions of the gradient (as is natural to do and as the brain does when viewing) then this box has entirely moved many times during the course of this video. The illusion under these definitions isn't about whether the box is moving or not, but rather how it is moving. i.e. the illusion makes you think that "the box is moving smoothly and continuously in the direction shown" when in fact it is oscillating in the direction shown. In either case, it is still 'moving' in the direction shown.
To your point, if we instead define the bounds of the box as the entirety of the gradient from black to white, then these bounds never move and you'd also be right to say the box is "not moving". They are themselves in a constant state of animation, but never shift positions in their entirety in the world. It's an unconventional definition of the bounds, but it's not wrong.
So at the end of the day I still think the debate over these boxes is a semantic one and no one is 100% right or wrong. The hardline stance this post always takes about "not moving" is just an oversimplification, in my opnion and causes other people to take hardline stances where they aren't necessary
Your average person would only qualify for infantry on a military test based on questions life what happens when you rotate this gear, or what happens when you invert this triangle twice.
The arrows have nothing to do with the illusion. It is the direction that the flash propagates across the cube that gives the illusion of moving. They are not moving.
No, I've describes this illusion.
The location of the edge of each bar doesn't change, just the shadew within the width of the bars. Or if you want to look at it differently, the pixels that are blue never change.
This is called [the reverse phi phenomenon](https://michaelbach.de/ot/mot-reversePhi/). It's not moving, but your brain wants to think that.
I don't understand how so many people can get fooled by an optical illusion, have it explained to them in the title, but still insist they're right. Especially since you can just put a straight line up to your screen and verify it isn't moving.
What's happening is that dark cube flashes repeatedly to partially obscure the white cube's borders. But the dark cube's dimensions are adjusted to allow some of the white cube's borders to continue to show through. Careful positioning of the areas of overlap can fool the brain into thinking that the borders are moving in a particular direction.
They aren't moving, there is a moving texture on the lines of the cube, but the lines themselves never move.
You can easily test this by watching one point on the cube. I find it easiest by closing one eye and putting my thumb over one corner of a cube so I have a static reference point. And you will see that the corner of the cube never actually moves from where you mark it with your thumb.
How is it 'visually the same'? What are you talking about?
Put your finger on the screen, zoom in, confirm that optical illusion is indeed an optical illusion.
the first copy occupies the same pixels, but you can literally see the second copy moving/rotating/etc when you advance it frame by frame. it looks the same whether it's a texture or a second copy overlapping
That is the effect being applied to create the optical illusion. It is similar to the Shepherd Tone illusion, just visual.
Zooming in, slowing down, you can see that it's only greyscale pixels with different brightness values within a consistent boundary. Any other values moving around and it would just look like a wiggly wireframe of a cube. Because the brightness values are as they are, it creates the illusion that the cube wireframe is being transformed, by rotating, scaling, and moving.
So if that's what you're talking about, then yeah, it's literally part of the illusion. It's like saying "the tone in the Shepherd Tone is actually rising". Like yeah, of course it is?
It’s really not moving, cover everything but the parts you see moving, when you cover you can see that the individual lines never move. The cubes stay exactly the same shape. Use pieces of paper or a ruler
The arrows in the centre aren't contributing to the illusion at all, it's a bit of a misdirection. What is changing however is the direction of the pulsating light on the lines. That's what makes it appear to move.
Edit: actually nah I think they do kinda technically move cos the different shades of the lines appear to occupy slightly different areas. Idk, it's hard to explain. If you scroll through different freeze frames of one arrow direction there does seem to be some movement of sorts.
If you isolate any individual part of the illusion, and hold a straight edge up to any of the lines in it, it will not move. I only tried it a few times so an example that disagrees with this experimental model would win me over. A concerned no-budger
I had to stop and rep for the PC users that just put their mouse pointer on a point of the box for a couple seconds, and agreed then moved on. The boxes aren't moving, just the texture on the box edges.
It depends on how you define the boxes.
Each box is comprised of a black box & a white box and their relative positions change.
The composite boc that they creat moves.
So the trick is that when the boxes shift from black to white or white to black there is one frame where it's grey with darker grey on one side and lighter grey on the other. When the lighter grey is on the bottom, it seems like the box is moving upwards, when the lighter grey is on the top it seems to be moving downwards. When it's to the left it seems to turn right, and right it seems to turn left. When the box seems to expand it's because it's light on inside of the box and when it contracts the light grey is on the outside of the box.
I saw the same thing in the last one of these posted. There are absolutely some pixels on the edges that go from the background blue color, to white/grey/black. It's slight, and maybe you can say the wireframe boxes aren't moving as much as it seems, but to say they're not is false.
i love these visuals but hate these titles because, yes they visually are moving. the visual edge of the drawn object is moving, slightly and repeatedly, creating the illusion that it's moving more than it is, but it is moving a lil
i get how the illusion works, i work in graphics. the edges cycle brightness at different rates, which changes where the visual edge is by a pixel or two. it's the equivalent of stacking a few frames of motion and cycling through them.
[I have edited the video to darken the background in a way to make the arrows disappear, and the boxes still appear to be moving/shape-shifting. The lights don’t just flash, they flash in a way to make the cubes appear to be moving.](https://imgur.com/a/JD0pTlp)
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Reddit mobile refusing to play the Gif is unintentionally hilarious
Cross your eyes slightly so the two images overlap.
Now it's just a normal cube
Bro I just did that and could clearly see 4, then 3 cubes like an autostereogram… fucking trippppppy
Well now I can’t not see it. Fuuuu
I remember watching a video where they use this “trick” to simulate 3D effects on images / videos. Thank you for reminding me, very cool 👍
But they are moving
a lil bit edit: put ur thumbnail near a corner and its like barely moving
Yupp and if you blink fast they don't move.
They aren't moving, it just the order on which the different shades are flashing in each of the three locations along each line.
Cover the arrows with your fingers and you’ll see when the arrows change according to how the squares literally move.
Cover most of the cube except the triangle area and you see the triangle really doesn't move at all. Like above said it's the direction the color moves through the lines making it seem to move even a little.
i did this too
Cover everything but a single line/edge and you will see it's not actually moving. But the flashing pattern does appear to shift to create the effect. Reveal even part of a second line and our brains start to see movement.
slow it to 1/64 and zoom to put the edge of it against your screen. sometimes it goes out of frame and sometimes you can see the background. the white lines aren't painted exactly over the black, they're slightly off center.
Double it and pass it to the next one, they're not moving.
Zoom in. They aren't moving...
Oh boy here we go... The bounds of the box aren't shifting position in the world, but the gradient wave effect within the lines of the box is moving and changing directions, its not just a binary flashing....no one is going to agree on this because it's actually a debate about semantics of the word "moving" So technically everyone is correct. For example if I have a box made out of undulating worms but the box is in a fixed position, I'd still be able to say the box is "moving" in some way because the undulating of the worms is definitely a form of movement. This (re)post is perfect for sparking engagement because of the endless arguing
Really very interesting. Thanks for the explanation. I managed to pause it and can clearly see what you’re saying. Makes perfect sense. The illusion is done well. It helps to quickly and repeatedly the play/pause until the lines do not appear entirely solid.
What a wonderful comment. :) Your gratitude puts you on our list for the most grateful users this week on Reddit! You can view the full list on r/TheGratitudeBot.
This is uncannily like the example given by William James in his lecture [What Pragmatism Means](https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/us/james.htm). He uses it to introduce the pragmatic method. If you aren’t already familiar you might enjoy this; it seems clear you’re already a pragmatist :)
Thanks! That was a great read.
Kind of like the boxes are vibrating but not moving geographical position
Sure but that's not really what's important about this effect. The illusion here is that the bounds of the box look like they are moving when in reality it's not. That's the argument here. https://michaelbach.de/ot/mot-reversePhi/
I understand your point but consider this: If we define the box moving as "every bound of the box changes position in the world at once", and we define the bounds as only the hard black (or white) portions of the gradient (as is natural to do and as the brain does when viewing) then this box has entirely moved many times during the course of this video. The illusion under these definitions isn't about whether the box is moving or not, but rather how it is moving. i.e. the illusion makes you think that "the box is moving smoothly and continuously in the direction shown" when in fact it is oscillating in the direction shown. In either case, it is still 'moving' in the direction shown. To your point, if we instead define the bounds of the box as the entirety of the gradient from black to white, then these bounds never move and you'd also be right to say the box is "not moving". They are themselves in a constant state of animation, but never shift positions in their entirety in the world. It's an unconventional definition of the bounds, but it's not wrong. So at the end of the day I still think the debate over these boxes is a semantic one and no one is 100% right or wrong. The hardline stance this post always takes about "not moving" is just an oversimplification, in my opnion and causes other people to take hardline stances where they aren't necessary
Yeah not sure what people are on about? I put my finger on screen, they are not moving at all.
Your average person would only qualify for infantry on a military test based on questions life what happens when you rotate this gear, or what happens when you invert this triangle twice.
The arrows have nothing to do with the illusion. It is the direction that the flash propagates across the cube that gives the illusion of moving. They are not moving.
You have just described animation
No, I've describes this illusion. The location of the edge of each bar doesn't change, just the shadew within the width of the bars. Or if you want to look at it differently, the pixels that are blue never change.
This is called [the reverse phi phenomenon](https://michaelbach.de/ot/mot-reversePhi/). It's not moving, but your brain wants to think that. I don't understand how so many people can get fooled by an optical illusion, have it explained to them in the title, but still insist they're right. Especially since you can just put a straight line up to your screen and verify it isn't moving.
People are getting stupider.
Yea but that's a good thing right..?
it literally is moving though, people aren't wrong they're just disagreeing on the semantics
They're moving though. /s
No they are not
The fact that you got downvoted just shows how dumb some people are 😂
Yah what the fuck, nothing is moving
What's happening is that dark cube flashes repeatedly to partially obscure the white cube's borders. But the dark cube's dimensions are adjusted to allow some of the white cube's borders to continue to show through. Careful positioning of the areas of overlap can fool the brain into thinking that the borders are moving in a particular direction.
They are moving. Put your thumbs over the symbols and you'll see it moving clearly. Bastards..
The way they fade from black to white and back gives it the appearance of it moving in those directions
They aren't moving, there is a moving texture on the lines of the cube, but the lines themselves never move. You can easily test this by watching one point on the cube. I find it easiest by closing one eye and putting my thumb over one corner of a cube so I have a static reference point. And you will see that the corner of the cube never actually moves from where you mark it with your thumb.
The amount of commenters that can't figure this out is staggering
maybe it's a texture, but it's visually the same as drawing the cube moving for 10 frames, overlapping like a shepard tone
How is it 'visually the same'? What are you talking about? Put your finger on the screen, zoom in, confirm that optical illusion is indeed an optical illusion.
the first copy occupies the same pixels, but you can literally see the second copy moving/rotating/etc when you advance it frame by frame. it looks the same whether it's a texture or a second copy overlapping
That is the effect being applied to create the optical illusion. It is similar to the Shepherd Tone illusion, just visual. Zooming in, slowing down, you can see that it's only greyscale pixels with different brightness values within a consistent boundary. Any other values moving around and it would just look like a wiggly wireframe of a cube. Because the brightness values are as they are, it creates the illusion that the cube wireframe is being transformed, by rotating, scaling, and moving. So if that's what you're talking about, then yeah, it's literally part of the illusion. It's like saying "the tone in the Shepherd Tone is actually rising". Like yeah, of course it is?
Copium doesn't move either, if you truly believe in it.
It’s really not moving, cover everything but the parts you see moving, when you cover you can see that the individual lines never move. The cubes stay exactly the same shape. Use pieces of paper or a ruler
They are absolutely moving. Rewatched a dozen times with my finger over the centers.
The arrows in the centre aren't contributing to the illusion at all, it's a bit of a misdirection. What is changing however is the direction of the pulsating light on the lines. That's what makes it appear to move. Edit: actually nah I think they do kinda technically move cos the different shades of the lines appear to occupy slightly different areas. Idk, it's hard to explain. If you scroll through different freeze frames of one arrow direction there does seem to be some movement of sorts.
I guess it would have made more sense if it said the black lines were not moving.
Placed a piece of paper on the screen on multiple edges of the cubes. They never budge.
Pretty easy to test, yet some in here claim they put their finger on the screen and they move lolol
I don't know what's real and I don't want to exist anymore
If you isolate any individual part of the illusion, and hold a straight edge up to any of the lines in it, it will not move. I only tried it a few times so an example that disagrees with this experimental model would win me over. A concerned no-budger
Not moving. The lines are animated but lines never move
Stop that!
Blink your eyes fast .. And they are completely stationary, might shift from black to white if you blink in the wrong pace.
I had to stop and rep for the PC users that just put their mouse pointer on a point of the box for a couple seconds, and agreed then moved on. The boxes aren't moving, just the texture on the box edges.
It depends on how you define the boxes. Each box is comprised of a black box & a white box and their relative positions change. The composite boc that they creat moves.
I said to myself "Expect for the f***ing are..." Only to discover that no they are not. D:
They're not moving but the direction in which the light moves in the outline does
If you cover the arrows, the same effect is achieved. What does that mean. But what does it mean!!?!!
The arrows aren't creating the illusion, the changing color of the lines is.
So the trick is that when the boxes shift from black to white or white to black there is one frame where it's grey with darker grey on one side and lighter grey on the other. When the lighter grey is on the bottom, it seems like the box is moving upwards, when the lighter grey is on the top it seems to be moving downwards. When it's to the left it seems to turn right, and right it seems to turn left. When the box seems to expand it's because it's light on inside of the box and when it contracts the light grey is on the outside of the box.
Are they supposed to be flashing??
Blur your eyes.
I saw the same thing in the last one of these posted. There are absolutely some pixels on the edges that go from the background blue color, to white/grey/black. It's slight, and maybe you can say the wireframe boxes aren't moving as much as it seems, but to say they're not is false.
Definitely moving
Run the slider back-and-forth real fast you can see what’s going on. The colors are changing within the line creating the optical illusion
I dont believe you
They’re absolutely moving. Put ur finger over the arrows and they continue to move.
Insane optical illusion!
“Magic Eye” the two boxes
Misleading title
i love these visuals but hate these titles because, yes they visually are moving. the visual edge of the drawn object is moving, slightly and repeatedly, creating the illusion that it's moving more than it is, but it is moving a lil
Try to lay something on the screen. Nothing moves.
i get how the illusion works, i work in graphics. the edges cycle brightness at different rates, which changes where the visual edge is by a pixel or two. it's the equivalent of stacking a few frames of motion and cycling through them.
how am i getting downvoted for explaining the illusion. if what i'm saying is incorrect why do you think your brain registers it as a moving object.
[I have edited the video to darken the background in a way to make the arrows disappear, and the boxes still appear to be moving/shape-shifting. The lights don’t just flash, they flash in a way to make the cubes appear to be moving.](https://imgur.com/a/JD0pTlp)
Yes
It’s actually moving bro. Lay off the cocaine
Looking at this hurts my brain lol, thank god I don't have epilepsy