Awesome Illusions

Performance artist Manuel Spectacles shows off the latest tech for presenting persistence of vision illusions. Sold in pairs, LightToys’ 240-pixel Visual POI V5 MAXI uses densely-packed RGB LEDs and circuitry that displays a line at a time to produce complete images when spun. Check out LightToys’ official demo video, too.

The earliest movies were filmed in black and white. Then, in the 1930s, the first color movies appeared. Cameron from NationSquid explains how Technicolor created the illusion of color using a prism to split red, green, and blue images onto three black and white film strips and then developed them with cyan, magenta, yellow, and black dyes.

This showy Bluetooth speaker has a cylindrical screen that displays song lyrics and other animations. The trick is a rapidly spinning LED bar that produces a persistence-of-vision illusion. Its see-through display can be viewed from any angle, and its audio system incorporates two full-range drivers and a subwoofer.

This unique rocking chair from South Korean artist Muddycap has a design that makes it look like it’s in motion all of the time. Its jagged edges create the illusion of movement, much like pond ripples. Like Muddycap’s other wild chair designs, it only exists as a 3D model, but we’d love to see it put into production.

Burls Art is back with another creative guitar build. This time, he made a unique electric guitar with a 3D depth illusion with the same technique used to make some wooden cutting boards. Blake and his friend started by cutting maple and walnut boards into strips of varying thicknesses, then stacked, glued, and cut them into wedges to create the pattern.

This special material uses a precision-engineered lens array to bend light around you, making it look like you vanished into thin air. Crouch down behind the full-size Invisibility Shield 2.0 or cloak your entire body with the 6-foot-tall MEGASHIELD. Both roll up for easy transport, and the shield is also available in a 12″ by 7.9″ Mini size for $69.

When you start to play this video, you’ll see a line bouncing around the screen. But if you pause it, the line vanishes. Chris Long explores this strange persistence of vision effect, which occurs when a line of pixels changes state between black and white. The method can also be used to share hidden text that can only be seen when the video is playing.

At first glance, you might think this was a painting of a hummingbird. But it is neither a painting nor a hummingbird. Hit play on the video, and you’ll see what we mean. Artist Thomas Deininger creates these incredible mixed media sculptures of birds, bees, and other animals that defy expectations when viewed from any angle other than straight on.

Artist M’Brick makes portraits from LEGO bricks. But rather than keeping things simple with 1×1 pixels, he uses a seemingly random assortment of parts to create depth and textures. The originals are hard to come by, but limited-edition prints are for sale at M’Brick’s Art Shop. His Frida Kahlo and Bruce Springsteen portraits are extraordinary.

The latest desk toy from the makers of the Mezmoglobe series offers up a hypnotic illusion that will have you scratching your head. Give its outer helix a spin, and it appears that its metal sphere is floating weightlessly in its center. It’s completely mechanical and uses no magnets or electricity. Choose from black, dark titanium, or silver helix designs.

We’ve all thought we saw faces in places they shouldn’t be, like buildings, outlets, and wood grain patterns. Duncan Clarke explores pareidolia, the tendency for humans to perceive faces and familiar forms where they don’t exist. Along the way, you’ll learn about other ways our brains really want us to see faces.

Many of us have seen the levitating man trick. Magician Xavier Mortimer took that idea and turned it on its side with an illusion that makes it appear that a man is floating while pushing a shopping cart. We’re guessing it was done with a rig like this to hold the guy’s body up, but we can’t figure out how they got the cart to move without visible motors.

There are some pretty cool backpacks on the market with LED screens, but this one from Yihong Technology works its visual magic differently. It uses a spinning fan blade with 510 flickering LEDs that display moving images using a persistence of vision illusion. It’s just for advertising and not carrying things, though.

Filmmaker Quek Shio recently put together a slick new office space for working on his videos. Instead of simply sharing a few still images of the setup, he used his editing skills to create a short film filled with invisible cuts and visual trickery that make it look like magic.

While it’s possible to build a hubless bicycle, it’s a mechanically complex feat. Builder The Q came up with a similar look that does away with the spokes instead, replacing them with thick polyacrylate sheets. We’re not sure how durable they are or how they affect ride quality, but it’s a really cool illusion.

Mad scientist Mike Ando aka RIUM+ created a unique display inspired by the holographic imagers in the adventure game Riven: The Sequel to Myst. His patent-pending Andotrope has a cylindrical display that spins with the turn of a crank, and displays an image that appears to follow you no matter what angle you view it from. Works great for Princess Leia, too.