Post #1939051
2026-05-03 23:48 UTC
Replies (28)
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@pikario@mastodon.gamedev.place 2026-05-04 00:11
@bit101 my phone is in greyscale and I can confirm the illusion of the two not moving together still works!
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@bweller@mstdn.social 2026-05-04 02:24
@bit101 that's very neat! i thought it was interesting that if i cover the front parts with my thumb, it breaks the illusion. i needed to cover almost all both blocks. the same doesnt seem to hold for covering the back parts, and the illusion still works. very cool! thank you for sharing
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@itsec_agentur@infosec.exchange 2026-05-04 05:19
@bit101 this definitely feels like a brain bug
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@rich@mastodon.gamedev.place 2026-05-04 07:55
@bit101 coding all that synchronised stop-start easing must have been quite tricky ;-)
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@alex@social.alexwlchan.net 2026-05-04 08:05
@bit101 I wonder (and I don’t have time to test this now): If you make the buses step in the way they appear to when they’re actually moving smoothly, do they appear to move smoothly?
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@yora@mastodon.gamedev.place 2026-05-04 08:33
@bit101 I can see it smooth when I look right at the leading edge of them.
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@ZoidbergForPresident@kolektiva.social 2026-05-04 09:05
@bit101 Strange, I sense the effect on the thumbnail but when zoomed in it's barely noticable.
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@nini@oldbytes.space 2026-05-04 09:19
@bit101 If you get closer the density of visual information increases so your brain can more accurately interpret the differences of colour values and it becomes smoother.
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@diazona@techhub.social 2026-05-04 09:20
@bit101 oh this is cool! It kind of makes sense though, how it's harder to detect the motion of each rectangle when its edges are in a stripe that it has less contrast with.
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@bit101@mstdn.social 2026-05-04 14:10
I'd never seen this before, but this post has been super popular. And sparked some new (and older) implementations and lots of conversation about what's happening. Nice.
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@pascaline@mastodon.nl 2026-05-04 12:02
@bit101 It is so cool! If zoomed in, the effect is les pronounced. I wonder if it has to do with the colours, or maybe that the brain can only properly position one at the same time. I also wonder if the 'jumps' are the same length in younger and older people, or the ones with eye problems. I also notice the blue one is already choppier than the yellow one, maybe the colour of the bars is crucial as well. Would it be less jumpy with white and grey, for instance?
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@rl_dane@polymaths.social 2026-05-04 12:21
@bit101 Holly cow, I thought you were pulling my leg until I zoomed in. 🤯
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@ireneista@adhd.irenes.space 2026-05-04 12:21
@bit101 oh wow
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@agowa338@chaos.social 2026-05-04 12:33
@bit101 Maybe I'm too close to the screen, but I feel like I can see how this illusion happens. For a split second each time the yellow one hits the end of the black bar you loose track of where the boundary between the yellow and the white is and therefore it looks like it wouldn't move into it. I guess if you'd increase contrast this stops working. Edit: Or it's because I've a screen with very good colour accuracy according to the test someone posted a few weeks ago...
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@bazzargh@hachyderm.io 2026-05-04 14:06
@bit101 a version I made for the bbc micro a few years back. I do like that coding up optical illusions like this means you know for certain it's not what it appears to be... but you can't unsee it https://mastodon.me.uk/@bbcmicrobot/109763774911592856
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@retech@corteximplant.com 2026-05-04 15:03
@bit101 The brain cannot see continuous motion. In stead, just like a movie camera, we see a stack of still images. So we more or less focus on one or the other rectangle it's why the B&W version works as well. Or covering one end works because your focused on the cover and that which is below it, the motiong then is grouped with all three objects. This effect is very evident if you look out the side window of a car or train while it is in motion or pan your head from L>R or R>L in the smooth be somewhat fast motion. In both cases you will see a staccatto sort of effect in that you will see a blurr, a freeze frame, blurr - repeat as you pan or are carried along. It's a processor conservation issue. Too much data to keep a contiguous stream. And the stills, I suspect, allow a very fast assesstment. Scan the still for danger/friend/foe as you continue seeing the illusion of motion.
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@fractalkitty@mathstodon.xyz 2026-05-04 16:34
@bit101 I played a bit too and got some waddle: https://codepen.io/fractalkitty/full/LEbVBKx
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@fbartho@mastodon.social 2026-05-04 17:37
@bit101 @schwa brain antialiasing!
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@murodegrizeco@toad.social 2026-05-04 20:26
@bit101 I hope the blue bus wins.
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@swift@sunny.garden 2026-05-04 22:10
@bit101 nooo this is like WHAT?!!
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@luki@mstdn.social 2026-05-05 09:11
@bit101 I hate that yellow rect...
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@paleblueyedot@tech.lgbt 2026-05-08 16:47
@bit101@mstdn.social does this relate to The Dress?
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@elebertus@eigenmagic.net 2026-05-08 17:56
@bit101@mstdn.social BRAIN SAYS U LIE
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@sysop408@sfba.social 2026-05-10 18:18
@bit101@mstdn.social I find that if you keep your gaze behind the buses (to the left) and let your eyes defocus a bit, you can break the illusion. You have to follow the back edge only and try not to even see the front edge
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@bit101@mstdn.social 2026-05-12 21:08
ok, 500 favorites. :)
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@untrusted@social.tchncs.de 2026-05-12 10:04
@bit101@mstdn.social +1 also had to create one 🙂 (this one is written in #gauche #scheme ) #optical #illusion #fun
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@jbz@indieweb.social 2026-05-12 21:14
@bit101@mstdn.social witchcraft
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@mtxyz@solarpunk.moe 2026-05-13 14:09
@bit101@mstdn.social I can kinda see it if I turn my phone so the busses move up, but I definitely cant focus on both buses at the same time.