That maze is steady as a rock . . .

If I concentrate on the center of my vision, it's steady. If I "zone out" a little and concentrate more on the periphery, then the motion is more intense.

When I first saw the maze illusion, I didn't notice the motion at all either.

Vision is amazingly complicated. For instance, all of us are blind a reasonably large fraction of the time due to "saccades" - http://www.google.co...mvR1Jid0hYjWeNBIA (4 page .pdf)

[...]

Put your face about 6 inches from a mirror and look from eye to eye. YouÂll notice that while youÂre obviously switching your gaze from eye to eye, you canÂt see your own eyes actually movingÂonly the end result when they come to rest on the new point of focus. Now get someone else to watch you doing so in the mirror. They can clearly see your eyes shifting, while to you itÂs quite invisible.

With longer saccades, you can consciously perceive the effect, but only just. Hold your arms out straight so your two index fingers are at opposite edges of your vision. Flick your eyes between them while keeping your head still. You can just about notice the momentary blackness as all visual input from the eyes is cut off. Saccades of this length take around 200 ms (a fifth of a second), which lies just on the threshold of conscious perception.

What if something happens during a saccade? Well, unless itÂs really bright, youÂll simply not see it. ThatÂs whatÂs so odd about saccades. WeÂre doing it constantly, but it doesnÂt look as if the universe is being blanked out a hundred thousand times a day for around a tenth of a second every time.

[...]

Neat stuff.

Cheers,
Scott.

Post #325,449 by Andrew Grygus 4/30/10 1:10:18 AM Reply	That maze is steady as a rock . . . . . and the snakes don't rotate either - though they do vibrate just a little at the center. No - I'm not at all color blind. I do, however have eyes about 2° out of register (with the anchor point at the right edge of vision). When I open both eyes it takes about 1/2 second for the images to counter-rotate and achieve register. This additional coordination effort seems to kill a number of optical illusions.
Post #325,450 by Another Scott 4/30/10 7:11:13 AM Reply	It's a peripheral vision effect for me. If I concentrate on the center of my vision, it's steady. If I "zone out" a little and concentrate more on the periphery, then the motion is more intense. When I first saw the maze illusion, I didn't notice the motion at all either. Vision is amazingly complicated. For instance, all of us are blind a reasonably large fraction of the time due to "saccades" - http://www.google.co...mvR1Jid0hYjWeNBIA (4 page .pdf) [...] Put your face about 6 inches from a mirror and look from eye to eye. YouÂll notice that while youÂre obviously switching your gaze from eye to eye, you canÂt see your own eyes actually movingÂonly the end result when they come to rest on the new point of focus. Now get someone else to watch you doing so in the mirror. They can clearly see your eyes shifting, while to you itÂs quite invisible. With longer saccades, you can consciously perceive the effect, but only just. Hold your arms out straight so your two index fingers are at opposite edges of your vision. Flick your eyes between them while keeping your head still. You can just about notice the momentary blackness as all visual input from the eyes is cut off. Saccades of this length take around 200 ms (a fifth of a second), which lies just on the threshold of conscious perception. What if something happens during a saccade? Well, unless itÂs really bright, youÂll simply not see it. ThatÂs whatÂs so odd about saccades. WeÂre doing it constantly, but it doesnÂt look as if the universe is being blanked out a hundred thousand times a day for around a tenth of a second every time. [...] Neat stuff. Cheers, Scott.
Post #325,455 by drook 4/30/10 8:47:32 AM Reply	That's the basis of some speed reading They supposedly train you to track words more smoothly without the saccades. -- Drew

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