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See the original image at davidoreilly.com

Trippy Rotating Grid illusion

davidoreilly.com — While working in 3d last year I discovered this optical illusion. A large grid seen rotating at a certain speed will appear to group itself into smaller grids, spinning independently. It appears the persistence of vision effect overrides our knowledge that this is a single grid and divides it up optically.

Who dugg this? Made popular Aug 24, 2008

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186 Comments

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  • GregFD3S, on 08/24/2008, -1/+199Mirror:

    Fast:
    http://gregsabia.com/images/ext/dor_grid_fast.gif
    Slow:
    http://gregsabia.com/images/ext/dor_grid_slow.gif
    Description:
    http://gregsabia.com/images/ext/dor_grid_desc.gif
  • inactive, on 08/24/2008, -0/+82The only thing spinning is the little firefox thing telling me it's not loading
  • JackBundaberg, on 08/23/2008, -2/+75Congratulations, now my eyes hurt
  • S5S5S5, on 08/23/2008, -0/+72l must kill Frank Drebin, l must kill Frank Drebin.
  • sh4d0w4lk3r, on 08/24/2008, -1/+51ಠ_ಠ
  • ZimFreak, on 08/24/2008, -0/+42i lol'd at the description
  • theremixtrack, on 08/23/2008, -15/+54pick it up babyman, i dont give a ***** about spinning squares
  • minorgods, on 08/24/2008, -2/+39looks like the background of 90% of myspace pages
  • jotate, on 08/24/2008, -1/+33You're allowed to swear on the Internet. Just so you know.
  • inactive, on 08/24/2008, -0/+29Thank you.
  • norm7, on 08/24/2008, -0/+26the internet is serious business
  • TaintedWisdom, on 08/23/2008, -10/+29HOLY ****!
    Don't look at this if you on any type of drug (and that includes the only thing I have in my system right now, benadryl).

    On another note, imagine being trapped on a room where that's all you see.
    While not sure, I'm guessing it wouldn't take long for you to go mentally insane.
  • bluesmonster, on 08/24/2008, -0/+17That is the exact face I made when I saw that image.
  • jmp478, on 08/24/2008, -6/+23Why hasn't anybody pointed out that this is from the "iHologram" submission from yesterday?
    http://digg.com/apple/iHologram_Incredibly_Cool_bu ...
  • Tophillious, on 08/24/2008, -0/+16mirror please.
  • GregFD3S, on 08/24/2008, -1/+16WTF are you talking about? Works fine for me.
  • GregFD3S, on 08/24/2008, -10/+24Frame by frame:
    http://gregsabia.com/images/ext/dor_grid_1.jpg
    http://gregsabia.com/images/ext/dor_grid_2.jpg
    http://gregsabia.com/images/ext/dor_grid_3.jpg
    http://gregsabia.com/images/ext/dor_grid_4.jpg
    http://gregsabia.com/images/ext/dor_grid_5.jpg
    http://gregsabia.com/images/ext/dor_grid_6.jpg
    http://gregsabia.com/images/ext/dor_grid_7.jpg

    There's 50+ frames, but you get the point.
  • Lucifugerising, on 08/24/2008, -1/+14WITCHERY!!!!
  • NathanielJ, on 08/24/2008, -1/+12"It appears the persistence of vision effect overrides our knowledge that this is a single grid and divides it up optically."

    No. The reason this illusion works is because the squares are moving so fast near the left and right edges of the screen, they move more than half of the width of a square per frame, so it looks like it's rotating the other way near the edges. It has nothing to do with persistence, because you can slow down/speed up the animation as much as you want and you get the same effect.
  • agsinger, on 08/24/2008, -0/+11i saw this earlier and my first thought was - damn i bet someone will submit this to digg...then my second thought was *i* should submit this to digg...then my last night thought was - no no, it will never make page 1 if i submit it - i'll just wait for mr baby man to find and submit it...

    AND it comes full circle!
  • Neiby, on 08/24/2008, -0/+11Not only has that never been funny, you're doing it wrong.
  • inactive, on 08/24/2008, -2/+12I don't go on reddit so this is news to me.

    K THX BYE!
  • ayeroxor, on 08/24/2008, -2/+12I laughed when you said shroom's haha. You don't know what an apostrophe is for haha
  • GregFD3S, on 08/24/2008, -1/+10"Just think, next time I shoot someone, I could be arrested."
  • pcgeek101, on 08/24/2008, -2/+11It's down already :(
  • nard3456, on 08/24/2008, -1/+10whoa trippy rotating 404 page
  • poet, on 08/24/2008, -0/+9Works for me too.
  • ayeroxor, on 08/24/2008, -3/+10Allow me to explain: The negative number by your post means nobody gives a *****.
  • Gamer2k4, on 08/24/2008, -1/+8And me.
  • TwistyNoseMcgee, on 08/24/2008, -1/+8I laughed when you said benadryl. I was expecting something like weed or shroom's haha
  • ajchavar, on 08/24/2008, -0/+6how do you think closely?
  • ericduh, on 08/23/2008, -1/+7i gotta change these contacts.
  • NathanielJ, on 08/24/2008, -1/+7I must kill Papsmear. *click* *click* *click* *click*
  • Defiant001, on 08/24/2008, -0/+6Are you seriously?

  • glendower, on 08/24/2008, -2/+8All glory to the hypno-toad!
  • jtbandes, on 08/24/2008, -0/+6The only reason it looks this way is because of the terrible framerate and jerkiness, which cause a slight rotation to line up the rows and columns protruding from the center of rotation with those from other points. I think it may also be related to how the edges are cut off. If the edges faded out, it might not do that.
  • Twoje, on 08/24/2008, -1/+7If you stand far enough away, the optical illusion goes away.
  • SHondo, on 08/24/2008, -0/+6why so seriously?
  • diggenerate, on 08/24/2008, -0/+5Mind bugling, huh? Boggling, maybe?
  • BetterOffEd, on 08/24/2008, -0/+5When I see five weirdos dressed in togas stabbing a guy in the middle of the park in full view of a hundred people, I shoot the bastards. That's my policy.
  • J3EBS, on 08/24/2008, -0/+5The goggles do nothing!
  • fxu1989, on 08/24/2008, -1/+6And me.
  • batmanz, on 08/24/2008, -1/+6MY EYES!!!!!!!!
  • NathanielJ, on 08/24/2008, -1/+5What the hell are you talking about? I extracted it frame-by-frame and you're full of *****. How can there be "five different rotation centers" when all of the lines are straight, parallel, and the spacing doesn't change?
  • netneutrality, on 08/24/2008, -0/+4Now *that* is something I'd like to see on a MySpace page! WOW!
  • Munkey106, on 08/24/2008, -1/+5I am on a moderate dose of 'shrooms (p. cubensis) right now. I've been watching it for apprently for 5 minutes, I didn't realize how long it'd had been I was talking on AIM too. This is very interesting for sure. My room isn't covered in it like you said, but I do have mild "tracers". This is cool.
  • NathanielJ, on 08/24/2008, -0/+4Er... yeah, I never said otherwise. I said it has nothing to do with persistence of vision. Try reading my comment again.
  • elshizzo, on 08/24/2008, -1/+5Wow, at first seeing this, I was going to call BS on this actually being a grid rotating. But now I can actually see it. Truly amazing.

    I do wonder however if the effect is still there if the image had a higher framerate.
  • RockSlice, on 08/24/2008, -3/+7I'd be willing to wager that this illusion won't work if you try recreating it in hardcopy.

    It's due to the location of the squares as they move around, restricted by the screen refresh rate of your monitor. A point far enough away from the center for 60 squares to pass every second will look like a separate rotating square on a 60 Hz refresh rate monitor.
  • macsox, on 08/24/2008, -1/+5Better than physically insane.
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