freakeh

[xparrot]

(from absenceofmind) Okay, I don't buy that this actually tells you whether you're left-brained or right-brained (or if it does, the article's got it wrong, left-brainers see it going clockwise) but regardless, I'll be damned if it isn't one of the weirdest optical illusions I've ever seen.

The Dancer

Watch it for long enough and the dancer switches the direction she's turning - she usually goes clockwise for me, except sometimes she'll start going counter-clockwise. If you can't get it to switch, try reading elsewhere on the page, or cover up half the dancer, or crossing your eyes magic-eye style.

(I actually had to save the gif and look at it frame-by-frame to convince myself this wasn't some computer trick...there's actually two frames that if I flip from the first to the next, I can 'see' her proceed to turn in either direction. Wild!)

Comments

[hils.livejournal.com]

I can't get her to change direction

HALF MY BRAIN IS BROKEN!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Heee - some people can't make it switch. Try turning your head (or computer!) upside-down? That might work... ^^;

(at least it's not the Clex side of the brain that's broken! Imagine, you could be a Clana fan :P)

[hils.livejournal.com]

at least it's not the Clex side of the brain that's broken! Imagine, you could be a Clana fan :P

*shudders*

[whitelighter]

I can only make her go clockwise. D:

Darnit. And for a minute there I thought I might have been using the creative side of my brain, too.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Hee - don't believe everything you read. I don't believe it's testing right brain/left brain as much as some sort of spatial recognition...my spatial skills being as lacking as they are, I bet that's why I can get it to switch ^^;

[sholio]

AAUGH! BRAIN! BREAKING!

... I can only see it going counter-clockwise, and I can't get it to flip. I even downloaded the GIF and tried running through it frame-by-frame -- it's counter-clockwise no matter which way I play the frames. If I reverse suddenly in the middle, I can get my brain to report clockwise motion for a couple of frames before it switches right back to going the other way.

That is freaky.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

...I didn't think of playing the frames backwards to test it! Yeah...isn't it weird? (I've had the best luck getting it to switch by turning my head upside down. For a couple minutes I had the trick and could just close and open my eyes to reset it, but then I lost it. Weeeeeird regardless!)

[naye]

...okay, that's really, really COOL! And also kind of creepy, because she just changed directions, and I didn't see how that'd even be possible, and you are sure it's not a computer trick, so. Cool!

[naye]

...yep, now she's stuck in counter-clockwise. She was stuck going clockwise for the longest time for me, but now it's the other way around... Hypnotic!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

gnine can actually make her "sway", doing half-turns there and back again. I can only manage it if I blink my eyes at just the right time...

[naye]

Ooooh~! I can sort of do that, but only really briefly - then she picks a direction and it takes a while for me to change it again...

I've also decided that I am WAY too easily amused. Eap!

[gnine.livejournal.com]

It took a LONG while of staring at it, and also looking at some of the still frames, but once I got my brain wrapped around how it works, I just sorta...make it do it...it's fun...and also is kinda making me dizzy...wheee!

On an entirely different note, SGA WHEE! (two eps left of first season...and um...Rodney=LOVE!)

Naye @ work

[(Anonymous)]

You made her an icon! She twirls, she twirls... so very hypnotically, she twirls.

Soooo. How long have you kept yourself amused with the twirly dancer girl today? EAP! *snuggles you*

TWO EPISODES LEFT??? Dear lord, you're going through them faster than I did!! And of course - Rodney is love. ♥ Heee~, you've seen The Defiant One - one of my first season favourites. And Letters from Pegasus! "A subject that is near and dear to my heart - leadership!" And then his adorable message to Jeannie about his Atlantis friends being family, and oooh, now I'm making myself wanna rewatch those eps.

Re: Naye @ work

[gnine.livejournal.com]

Hehe, you so CUTE! Yeah, The Defiant One was fun...we're also fond of...um...plastic bug one...38 minutes, that's it!

And...um...let's not go into how much time I wasted with the dancer...but um... LOVE LIVE EAP!!! Wheeeee! *huggles*

Re: Naye @ work

[stitcher2ficcer.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. Your level of "Eapiness" is truly frightening. But this really is fascinating. I didn't look at her until midway through this discussion, and I found that armed with others' ideas of how to make her change directions, I could fairly easily get her to turn in the opposite direction right away, and pretty consistently if I focus on her feet or blink or shift my eyes away and then back. I called your dad in to check this out, and he could also see her change directions pretty easily.

I am definitely ambidextrous, and your dad suffers right/left confusion--and you and your sis and bro all tend toward ambidexterity--is that perhaps why we can so easily see both directions? Have you sent this to Matthew to check it out and see what his experience is?

[feyhowl.livejournal.com]

... I think my brain alternates. The dancer stutters a bit (my comp's fault) every few moments and she starts to turn the other way for me. I blink and she reverses again. I started clock-wise, then reverse, clock-wise, reverse, ect.

Does this mean I can't make up my mind?

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Hee, sometimes it does the change-when-blinking thing for me, too! Very bizarre...

[doewiebele.livejournal.com]

I try and try, but I can only see her go clockwise... (makes sense) My collegue sees her go from one way to the other...freaky!

Thanks for the link!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Isn't it cool? in a brain-breaking wastes-way-too-much-time sorta way!

[scriva.livejournal.com]

Fascintating. Thank you for posting this. At first, I saw her turning anti-clock wise, then I got her to switch to the other side. And now I have realised that if the eyes slowly go down the leg and focus a while on the shadow, it turns from one direction to the other while looking at the torso doesn't do much.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Yeah, watching the shadow is the easiest way for me to make it switch directions, too. Weird, no? If you pause the image you can see how the illusion works; any single frame you can read the silhouette as either facing towards or away. Still, how it switches in your head is weird!

[nerowill.livejournal.com]

*aarrgg* She kept flipping back and forth! Totally not at my control (or 'focus')! Now I'm nauseated and don't know which half of my brain is causing it! :0
:)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Both halfs, perhaps? ambidextrous brain!

[lukita.livejournal.com]

I must be one of those people who have the most logical daydreams... all the time. Cause for a lefty and someone who remembers things using pictures, that girl is spinning counter-clockwise. Either that or I'm mixing up my clockwise and counter-clockwise. XD

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Like I said, I think the article got it wrong; from a casual poll, left-brainers all see it going clockwise, and right-brainers such as yourself see it going counter-clockwise...

Ah.... Three Dimensional images with no depth cues

[(Anonymous)]

Gotta love a faux-3D image with all depth cues removed. I too am skeptical of how this indicates left-brained vs. right-brained...

My personal guess at to which way you think it's rotating is what frame you start looking at. Most people's brains probably assume that the dancer is facing them when they start looking, and the brain fills in the rest from there... Then our spatial reasoning and object permanance kick in, and we keep seeing it spin that direction.

As a fun sidenote, if I blink at the right moment (when her foot is furthest out), I can make her switch direction every half-turn, meaning her foot is always on the side closest to me.

Re: Ah.... Three Dimensional images with no depth cues

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

The one thing that makes me wonder about the left-brain/right-brain correlation is that a lot more people see it going clockwise than counter-clockwise, and the ones who see it going counter-clockwise almost all are more visually-artistically inclined. So I think the article flubbed what direction correlates with what side, but maybe there's something there? Especially since it doesn't seem to matter when I start looking at it (I tried it with a slower version and closing and opening my eyes at various points, and it pretty much always starts out clockwise, though I can get it to shift.)

Yeah, I can do the half-turn thing, too, by blinking...my sis can make it do it without the blinking. I think she was staring at it for too long!