UK Edition
This incredible optical illusion is blowing people's minds
An unusual optical illusion has left the internet collectively scratching their heads, but can you see why?
The illusion by Victoria Skye, who has the incredible job title of magical entertainer, has been widely shared on social media.
It’s called the Cafe Wall Illusion and may appear to some as if the horizontal bars look like they bend and are at an angle.
But if you take a closer look, you’ll in fact see the horizontal lines are actually straight and in parallel rows.
It has left the internet divided
And confused
But mostly just impressed
Here's how you can see the illusion for yourself
And here's the wall that inspired the illusion
“I love tricking the brain on any level and making the impossible possible,” explains Ms Skye.
“In my version of the famous Café-Wall illusion, I have mixed together both the original Café-Wall illusion that was made famous by Richard Gregory—and which showcases the brickwork laid on the wall of a café in Bristol, England—with the work of Akiyoshi Kitaoka, who has developed a number of different versions using the same underlying effect.
“Other versions of this effect were later discovered, such as the Café Wall variant, and in my version I have summed two very strong versions of this effect to heighten the illusion even more.”
So how does it work?
“The scientists say that the reason the illusion exists has to do with how the white and black edges interact in opposite directions along the straight edge, tricking the brain into thinking there is a slant in the line,” she adds.
“That’s why, if you blur the image, the effect disappears… because you cannot resolve the tiny white-black interactions once they are blurred, so the brain is no longer led down the garden path.”
More illusions
Another popular optical illusion being shared online challenges us to guess the object hidden in a brick wall - can you solve it?
And can you work out these 12 mind-bending optical illusions?