Fechner Illusion Guestbook

(Launched November 16, 1999)

Due to abuse by spammers, this guestbook is closed for new comments.

The Comments:

i saw green centres! and green strips
cheers & what fun!
Toni D
Ottawa, Canada - Monday, May 6, 2002

The feathers were a greenish brown (babyshit brown I call it....) that was at default speed. There was a very faint purplishtinge to the verticals. On speeding up, the purple verticals were much brighter. I felt qute ill after only about 1 1.5 minutes.
Tracey Lauriault
- Tuesday, May 14, 2002

on both, I saw a yellowish colour in the center area here is another one you may try. on a plain white background, place a black square in the middle, and concentrate on the outside edges of the black. you will see another colour. you can do this with any colour. my mother showed me this years ago. it really works phil foster
Phil
peterborough, ont Canada - Thursday, March 28, 2002 at 07:14:16 (EST)

Fechner illusions (both): I saw yellow tinges on inner portion.
Vince Gutschick
Las Cruces, NM USA - Friday, March 22, 2002 at 11:11:08 (EST)

Dark green on receding lines, very faint blue on advancing lines. I worked in college psych on this illusion. We viewed the illusion under sodium vapor light -- nearly monochromatic. The illusion is much more intense.
Jim Sowder
- Tuesday, March 19, 2002 at 13:30:49 (EST)

I saw the illusion best when the speed was between 350 and 450. When the lines were moving down, the tines that pointed up seemed yellow or green, while the tines that pointed down seemed red or brown. When the lines were moving up, the tines that pointed up seemed blue or purple and the tines that pointed dwon seemed yellow or green. I have seen a similar spinner version called the Benham disk, for what it's worth.
LaDawn Haws
Chico, CA USA - Sunday, March 17, 2002 at 01:23:54 (EST)

The first time the inner straight lines were navy blue. The second time the inner lines were kind of a army green and the outer lines were navy blue! Cool!
Caren Oliver
San Jose, CA USA - Thursday, March 14, 2002 at 20:40:23 (EST)

Ok, after viewing all the anaglyph stuff, my eyes were still recovering from red/blue mode, so the first test was a little cheated. I saw streaks of "viewflash" blue/purple/red for a while streaking behind each black object. After letting my eyes rest back to normal color vision, I tried it again. I gotta be honest here, if I think about it hard enough I can make myself beleive I'm seeing about every color of the spectrum being created, but at the "beginning" of the coloration (I'm hoping that was the true effect) it was mostly 'black leading green,' 'black trailing pink.' Now for the standard answers: Pink, Dark Green. Around the small teeth produced the best areas of fake color for me. Linear was definitely better. Theories? Well... I guess it depends on how fast the surface recovery period is for the viewers eyes and what thier dominant set of cone chroma pigmentation is (if I'm remembering biology correctly). I'm thinking colorsighted people will always see primary pairs. I'm guessing since the color adaptive properties of the eye are "always on" and we cant select between chromatic and grays, there's always going to be some colored variance. Could colorblind people have a slightly different range of colors being created? Also, anybody ever tried this drunk? >=] Oh well, I could be completely wrong and it's all a little 'farther in' (more psychological than physiological?) Very cool stuff, I love it much. =] Now back to [voluntarily!] studying special relativity for me. =P
Josh Elliott
Eliz, TN US - Thursday, March 07, 2002 at 12:42:17 (EST)

I wasn't able to see the colors you said, but i did see like a dark forest green in between those black and white mini-spaces reversed and all
Dennis
- Monday, March 04, 2002 at 21:12:30 (EST)

I saw green. The black began to turn green.
Adrienne
dumfries, va U.S.A. - Monday, March 04, 2002 at 20:49:30 (EST)

When i just "thought" I was holding my eye still, all I could see was a faint ivory tinge in the white spaces between the "leading" teeth (the black teeth that point in the direction of the motion). Once I realized that I needed to really focus on the center cross in order to immobilize my eyes, I saw a somewhat deeper yellowish ivory in between the leading teeth. I did not see color in between the trailing teeth, but the (black) trailing teeth themselves were tinged green and somewhat lightened. When I was most successful at holding my eyes still I saw that the entire white "leading edge" was tinged ivory, not just the area in between the teeth. And the trailing white edge (well, actually the leading black) was tinged green. Based on this I suspect that the effect actually would occur if you simply had bars moving across the screen without any teeth at all, but you would have trouble seeing the effect because there would be no "pure" white to contrast it with. At the highest speed I saw the trailing green as unchanged, but the leading direction was deep purple. By experimenting I find that the cutoff is between speed 535 where the ivory-yellow is still the main effect, and 540 where there is a strong flip to purple. I am also able to see why...the 2 colors are complimentary, and I switch from seeing the ivory-yellow IN the leading white areas, instead seeing the purple-black as an afterimage in adjacent black areas. Of course this doesn't explain why the illusion of color in the white spaces, but it does give me a theory for why the color switches. Based on this I reasoned that since I already saw the green as being "in" the black area, it too should be an after-image and I should be able to find a speed at which I saw a complementary red in white areas just preceding it. However, I could not find any such speed. I saw green until I got down to a speed where I basically saw just black and white. By the way, I found your great site because I am searching for an illusion for which I have lost my bookmark, and I am having no luck finding it. Any pointers would be appreciated. The illusion consists of staring at a set of vertical stripes (black+color A) and a set of horizontal stripes (black+color B), and then seeing that when you look at plain black & white stripes you see traces of the same colors in between. What made this fascinating is that the effect PERSISTS...if you wait a week, then look at the same black and white stripes, you will still see the colors in between. This is mind-blowing. The web site gives some interesting explanation (well, theory anyway) how and why the brain, not the eye, does this. Anyone know where to find this? Thanks.
Laura
- Tuesday, January 22, 2002 at 19:49:25 (EST)

On the trailing teeth, the color varied between bright yellow and green. On the leading teeth, the color was dark purple. The purple (being very near black) was easiest to see on the spiral illusion, when in the reverse direction (so the innermost teeth are leading).
CB
- Saturday, January 12, 2002 at 16:27:27 (EST)

The sections where the "teeth" were leading the line seemed tinted with blue. The sections where the teeth were trailing the line were tinted a kind of peachy color. The effect got stronger as the motion got faster, there was no peaking. Rotating seemed to work better. I am not colorblind. Maybe this has something to do with different sensitivity of the eye to colors, (i.e. green is picked up faster than pink).
Rich
- Friday, January 11, 2002 at 14:04:50 (EST)

Saw blue and yellow-brown
Mr Anonymous
- Friday, January 11, 2002 at 13:13:27 (EST)

I saw no color. I am aware of the effect though! A friend of mine did grad work with a doctor here who built a machine that does what you're trying to do. Ironically, his last name was "Purple"! Please note, I'm blind (95%) in my right eye. As far as why people perceive colors with these devices, it seems related to frequency perception. The brain, in trying to determine what the eyes are seeing, glitches out and applies a color to compensate for the black/white switch off. Have you tried this using, say, cyan and magenta?!?
Effer
St. Paul, MN USA - Tuesday, January 08, 2002 at 14:43:58 (EST)

Time and again I saw the colors blue and green appearing.
(name withheld)
The Hague, The Netherlands - Friday, January 04, 2002 at 16:57:45 (EST)

The rotating one worked best, though they both worked fine. I saw two colors, red and green. In the spriral, the center was red, while the outside was green. In the linear motion, in all directions I saw an alternating red stripe, followed by a green stripe.
Leonid Vigderman
- Thursday, December 27, 2001 at 15:32:02 (EST)

I saw purple and blue. It was a neat illusion.
Carrie
- Monday, December 24, 2001 at 09:06:53 (EST)

While I was viewing this illusion i never saw any faint sign of brown. While the movement was moving horizontally, a strong appearance of green outlined in blue occured. On the other hand, while the illusion was moving vertically one section would be pink or light red and other, blue. The linear motion appeared to have more colors. The only theory that I do have is this. Because the mind contains certain primary colors, the color white which is composed of all of these colors is the hardest for the mind to detect quickly. Likewise, in my own experiments, when a person first opens his eyes, after being secluded from any hint of light and looks at something purely white, the first color that this person sees is either red or green, a part of the primary colors. So, when the colors white and black are placed closely together, in a moving fashion, the eyes are unable to form the color white fast enough so the colors, which are used to form white in the mind, appear to be seperated from the color white while looking at it. If the true answer to this is found, I would thoroughly enjoy hearing about it.
Melissa
TX - Wednesday, December 19, 2001 at 21:28:13 (EST)

With both the linear and rotating motion, I saw a deep purple color between the black areas. When I reversed the direction of the linear motion, the color that I saw was green. Very interesting...
Brandon Carrasco
- Wednesday, December 19, 2001 at 11:42:00 (EST)

Yes, I saw faint color in the areas immediate to the center. I have an interesting comment to make about something I've seen my whole life. Sitting at a traffic light, the traffic flying by has the same effect. It's linear motion, of course, but colors are faintly visible as the cars pass. Additionally, when I look at the illustration you present, there is a trail of transparent black behind the motion. This occurs in traffic, as well. Check it out some time. Mary
Mary W. Mathis
Macon, GA USA - Sunday, December 09, 2001 at 06:41:54 (EST)

I only saw brown added to the black and white!
Corinne
- Friday, December 07, 2001 at 18:13:20 (EST)

I saw a kind of purpleish red and a forest green.
Dazy
Edmonton, ab Canada - Friday, December 07, 2001 at 09:42:53 (EST)

I saw reddısh ın the disc, where after some time it turned into brownish color
Pamir
Izmir, Turkey - Saturday, November 24, 2001 at 15:01:10 (EST)

Very interesting - I see an Indian Red opposing a dull green. The colours change position when direction is changed. Having read a few other comments, a pertinent question comes to mind - since so many variations are percieved, is any given colour I percieve, percieved as the same colour by someone else? Do we see the same colours or does every individual have a truely unique visual on the world?
anthony evans
jhb, SOUTH AFRICA - Friday, November 09, 2001 at 14:43:55 (EST)

this is so cool i saw colors like green and navy blue
amanda
ottawa, il us - Wednesday, November 07, 2001 at 18:46:48 (EST)

I seen green color in the inner lines of the rotating disc and green color on the horizontal lines in the first demo. I had just been at the website experimenting with the McCollough effect
Darlene Perez
Mt. Pleasant, MI USA - Tuesday, November 06, 2001 at 03:19:14 (EST)

Interestingly enough, although I did see the colors, I was able to detect dimension. After looking at the bars go from left to right for about 15 to 20 sec. I suddenly began seeing the image as if looking at it through a lens. It was much like those pictures that were popular a few years ago in which if viewed correctly an image would suddenly appear out of seemingly random shapes.
Douglas Woellner
Houston, Tx USA - Saturday, November 03, 2001 at 23:44:27 (EST)

It was really cool! The Straight bits were green and dark red, and then they swapped around when i clicked 'reverse'. I think that the rotating was easier to see, but both were very effective.
Josh B
- Friday, November 02, 2001 at 15:24:13 (EST)

I like how the green switches sides on both if you reverse it.. at full speed if you focus on the center of the rotating one and wait for a while, then look away it gives a similar effect to that of the counter rotating spiral illusion, but more in one direction.. very fun
Mage
Kansas City, MO USA - Thursday, November 01, 2001 at 11:53:54 (EST)

I have red/green colour blindness, but I think I was able to see traces of yellow, as well as some gray "cloudiness" surrounding the spiral. The spiral seemed to work better for me.
Louis
Charlottetown, PE Canada - Thursday, October 25, 2001 at 09:13:19 (EDT)

Illusion 1: edges cyan (dark) and yellowish... Illusion 2: inner circle: dark brows, yellow edges, outer circle: edges: cyan
Angelo Pesce
Scafati, SA Italy - Thursday, October 11, 2001 at 17:48:48 (EDT)

Illusion # 1-- green and purple. Illusion #2 the very center point of the circle appeared blue. Moving out from the center.. a band of green.. and the outter diameter-purple.
Autumn
- Monday, October 08, 2001 at 10:43:02 (EDT)

I saw brown and green in the linear version. I saw yellow in the rotary version.

england - Monday, September 24, 2001 at 17:06:59 (EDT)

Yes, I saw colors. I saw red and yellow. Linear motion works best.
glass ceiling
- Saturday, September 08, 2001 at 13:50:03 (EDT)

i see some green in between the E lookin things
adam melton
wv usa - Sunday, August 26, 2001 at 13:34:44 (EDT)

I'm Red/green colour blind. See blue on the linear motion where the small line are pointing away from the motion, a red or brown colour where the line point into the motion. Linear worked much better for me. I am fairly sure full colour blind people would see nothing unusual in the animation. In Indonesia now, actually a aussie from perth
D Wieman
Indonesia - Friday, August 24, 2001 at 04:56:10 (EDT)

I observed theat there appeared to be a greenish tinted black color difference between certain areas in each test i.e., parts looked black other parts looked black/greenish tinted.
Dale Rector
- Thursday, August 16, 2001 at 02:12:02 (EDT)

at speed# 85 it all comes together like a magic rainbow dartboard, if you look at it correctly.
dan
- Wednesday, August 15, 2001 at 04:09:39 (EDT)

when i sped it up it went in reverse..but when it was at about speed of 90 it looked like about 8 triangles spinning..and alittle bit faster i saw 2 circles spinning inside of each other
paul mcnally
cherry hill , nj us - Saturday, August 04, 2001 at 19:18:39 (EDT)

colours blue and yellow were seen on edges of black oblong protrusions. worked best at 75% speed, when colours became brighter and deeper in shade (noticeably, yellow -> orange. rotating worked best for me.
janey
- Thursday, August 02, 2001 at 05:25:09 (EDT)

Yes, i saw colors. In Illusion 1 there were a blue effect on the first and third block in reverse-mode it shifts to 2nd and 4th block. If the speed gets to high, the effects remove. The 2nd Illusion the effect is in the middle blue, if the speed rises it gets green. Both effects only works, if you concentrate to the center of the graphics - if you follow the ellements there is no effect to see. The rotating Illusion works better, because of the high frequency i think. And for everyone who wants to know: I don´t know if I´m a relative of Fechner whit his therories. Bye Lutz Fechner, Germany www.lf-x.de
Lutz Fechner
Bergheim, NRW Germany - Thursday, July 19, 2001 at 20:28:34 (EDT)

In the side-to-side motion, in the black sections poking out form the right of each bar, I saw greenish colours, while on the comb-shapes jutting out to the left i saw pink colours. The colours didn't change much with speed. With the up-and-down motion, I saw the combs pointing down as green again, and the ones poking up as pink.
Abby
Brisbane, QLD Australia - Thursday, July 12, 2001 at 22:32:29 (EDT)

I felt i was looking down upon 4 buildings, and i saw yellow and green (linear)
Ashley
- Monday, July 02, 2001 at 20:13:33 (EDT)

Both linear and rotating motion produced the illusion. Receding black teeth trailed yellow when moving laterally or circularly, and green when moving vertically. Receding white teeth trailed magenta when moving laterally. Speed enhanced the effect.
Brent Lehman
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 23:01:38 (EDT)

I did see color. Linear motion worked best. I saw a green brown sort of color in every other band. I stopped the movement and the color faded at once. Very strange. I am a dental Ceramist and look at color every day. Hue, chroma and value are our friends. Thanks, -Ned
Ned Scarisbrick
- Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 21:58:35 (EDT)

I saw red on the first and third lines.... I am red/green color blind ( I CAN see red )
William Bowen
Glendale, AZ USA - Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 17:09:48 (EDT)

With speeds roughly in the middle of the scale, when moving left the 4 lines below the cross took on a dark green hue. Reverse direction and the green transferred to the 4 lines above the cross.
Frank Grenfell
Windsor, UK - Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 17:51:06 (EDT)

I saw blue and red. The areas where the lines jutted out from the larger lines had the colours Rotating works best
Greme
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 18:01:28 (EDT)

I didn't see any colours but the black was very black and the white was very bright... I wonder if this is because I have good sight in one eye and poor sight in the other. Very interesting site!
Andreana Draper
Cobram, Vic Australia - Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 03:52:50 (EDT)

i found dark green and dark purple
x
- Friday, May 18, 2001 at 16:54:59 (EDT)

Yes, I too saw colors, other than black and white. What came to my mind is doppler effect. The comb/fingers on the leading edge are shortened, those on the trailing edge are lengthened, giving rise to the color illusion of longer or shorter wave bands; redish shorter, blueish longer. ? I'm no physicist, but it satisfies my curiosity. Thank you. Very nice web site.
k patrick
CA - Monday, May 14, 2001 at 20:52:37 (EDT)

um..i saw colours, i saw brown near the outside and green on the inside circle roating was better as i could see more colours and it looked better
emmer
chester, england - Tuesday, May 08, 2001 at 16:22:57 (EDT)

With the linear display, moving left-> right, I see colours in the teeth of the combs: reading from top to bottom BLUE, GREEN, BLUE, RED (really INDIGO, OLIVE GREEN, INDIGO, RUST). The trailing edge looks yellowish. The effect reaches a maximum around speed 500. At speed 700, the colours flip to GREEN, RED, GREEN, RED, but become harder to distinguish. The colours with vertical motion are less clear. The colours with rotational motion are also less clear, and less clear than on a physical spinner I made about 30 years ago, with three sets of three parallel lines. I have no idea what causes the illusion. Scary. PS. I came here to visualise the 24-cell. What a wonderful site.
Ewart Shaw
Coventry, UK - Wednesday, May 02, 2001 at 09:58:25 (EDT)

Did you see colors? YES What colors? AT SLOW SPEEDS I SAW YELLOW/GREEN AND BLUE/PURPLE, WHICH AT HIGH SPEEDS BECAME BROWN AND BLUE/GREY Anything unusual? THE YELLOW COLOUR FEELS "FALSE" Any theories about this illusion? I GUESS THE DIFFERENT COLOUR CONES HAVE DIFFERENT PREFERRED FREQUENCIES OF ACTIVATION.
Richard Vickery
Sydney, NSW Australia - Friday, April 27, 2001 at 02:15:14 (EDT)

i saw dark green on the alternating bands,the comb structures only,which switched on reverse motion
Edward Clark
- Wednesday, April 25, 2001 at 01:44:03 (EDT)

I saw brown teeth fromm one in on each side. And talk about dizzy! Jessie
Jessie
Inverness, Fl USA - Friday, April 20, 2001 at 13:50:37 (EDT)

Very cool! I see a blueish green on the teeth that face the direction of motion, and purple-red on the others. I think the linear motion was best.
Daniel Brooks
FL US - Thursday, April 19, 2001 at 00:37:46 (EDT)

I saw colors. Black, White and a sort of brown. Rotating is best.
Tom Farrell
Tacoma, WA USA - Wednesday, April 18, 2001 at 19:34:39 (EDT)

Yes, I saw colors. I saw red and yellow. Linear motion works best.
Lollipop Candystick Clam
- Tuesday, April 10, 2001 at 22:27:10 (EDT)

I saw all of the left facing teeth as green.
Alec Soroudi
London, On Canada - Tuesday, April 10, 2001 at 10:58:02 (EDT)

I didn't see anything
sarah johnston
boston, ma usa - Friday, March 30, 2001 at 14:36:21 (EST)

I saw dark forest green and dark purple, on the short bars of both. Neither worked better than the other for me. They were both keen.
Tserisa
Ptld, OR USA - Friday, March 30, 2001 at 01:23:17 (EST)

Saw green and red especially on the rotating one where green's on the inside red on the outside-pretty cool illusion if you get anymore let me know
Adam
Birmingham, England - Friday, March 23, 2001 at 04:11:18 (EST)

yes i saw colours in the middle i saw a fluro greeny-yellow on the out side i saw a pinky-purple colour rotating worked best
kristin barns
australia - Tuesday, March 06, 2001 at 06:21:08 (EST)

At half speed I saw shades of brown, mostly light in the white areas, also half of the black E shapes were green. At the highest speed, I saw different shades of purple.
Robin Hallgren
wa - Sunday, March 04, 2001 at 19:41:31 (EST)

I saw at first green then i saw a very lightblue then the outside was purple.It was MAD AWSOME!!!!!
matthew hamblin
virgina beach, va u.s.a. - Saturday, March 03, 2001 at 21:19:09 (EST)

I saw green on the inside of the spining one, and red on the outside.. trippy!
double_K
- Saturday, February 24, 2001 at 02:15:21 (EST)

I was unable to see color when the patterns were moving from left to right. It was only after I changed it to go up and down did I see any colors. The colors I saw were yellow and blue. I have never heard of this before. It's pretty cool!
Ang
- Friday, February 23, 2001 at 13:10:34 (EST)

At speed 750 for the linear one, I saw olive green on some areas. At speed 60 for the rotating one, I saw the same color on the inner part of the circle.
ruth
- Monday, February 19, 2001 at 13:08:41 (EST)

I saw some colors.. but what i though was most interesting was with the rotating one. I find that sometiems i am able to adjust the "frame rate" of my eyes... if i concentrate i can see the spiral sinning in the opposite direction.. if you stare at this spiral.. you can then look away.. and you can see distortion on whatever you look like the distortion spirals the opposite direction the applet is moving..
Dirk Dodson
Santa Clarita, Ca USA - Monday, January 29, 2001 at 05:23:45 (EST)

I saw white with green!
~*MiCkEY*~
Houston, TX USA - Sunday, January 21, 2001 at 22:19:19 (EST)

i saw blue/green in the middle of the spinny thingy when it was going 180 RPM! IT WAS REALLY COOL!!! :o) send me some cool ones to my e-mail!
Mitchell Llewellyn
Moorefield, WV USA - Friday, January 19, 2001 at 23:44:47 (EST)

I saw red at the edge of the circle.
Kristen
Marshall, TX USA - Wednesday, January 10, 2001 at 22:28:19 (EST)

the rotating illusion worked best. I saw yellow around the central spokes. Didn't see any colours on the lineal one.
PJ
Melbourne, Victoria Australia - Wednesday, January 10, 2001 at 21:54:27 (EST)

i saw a white background and black cicular lines
missy
- Friday, January 05, 2001 at 20:04:30 (EST)

First I saw only black and white, but then in the middle suddenly blue and red. I was very surpised to saw red and blue instead white and black. (Sorry my English is not so good)
Tobias
Remseck, BW Germany - Sunday, December 31, 2000 at 06:24:06 (EST)

we saw green around the centre of the rotation
Raiyan Ahmed
- Saturday, December 30, 2000 at 07:59:44 (EST)

I am severely color deficient (red-green; pink-gray; blue-purple; yellow-orange; yellow-green; green-white; orange-green; brown-green; etc.) I could not see any colors in either the rotating or linear motion. I wish I had seen colors, that would have been neat, but I did not.
William Sofield
St. Louis, MO USA - Sunday, December 24, 2000 at 18:11:43 (EST)

Hi! I saw bright yellow light blue and light pink! I also go mighty dizzy! :)
- Sunday, December 24, 2000 at 13:03:30 (EST)

I saw dull reds, greens and blues in illusion #1, and incredibly neon greens in illusion #2 (especially at high speeds).
Daniel Powell (Rabbit)
- Monday, December 18, 2000 at 15:21:01 (EST)

I saw a dark colour of red. The area behind the moving lines had colour when you concertrated +/., and when on the lines, my eyes hurt over the strain. I recon the fact that all colours come from b/w has somthing to do with it. The linear worked best.
Jenson
- Friday, December 15, 2000 at 01:55:26 (EST)

In the rotating model the center group cased a greenish glow the out caused a redish one. Does this have anything to do with moire or some type of refresh rate de-modulation with the monitor or the actual way the brain or optic nerves perceive light?
M
Tallahassee, FL - Thursday, December 14, 2000 at 19:46:48 (EST)

I saw green, just where the small grouped rectangles appeared to be pointing opposite the direction the circle/linear is moving!
Jovan
Long Beach, CA USA - Friday, December 01, 2000 at 18:54:27 (EST)

Yes, I saw two colors. at the rotation i saw the middle in yellow and the outer region in purple. When reversing it, it changed for inside to outside.
TheMasterE
Neu-Ulm, D Bayern - Friday, December 01, 2000 at 04:53:07 (EST)

I could not see the effect: no figure, no movement, only the background. (by using either Netscape or Explorer, in PC and in MAC).
osvaldo da Pos
Padua, Italy - Friday, November 24, 2000 at 06:11:59 (EST)

I saw a small plus sign in the linear exercise that changed from white to light blue, maybe, then red, as the lines passed over it. I saw no color at all in the rotating motion.
JoAnn
- Wednesday, November 22, 2000 at 09:01:12 (EST)

My Wife and Daughter both saw several colors...ranging from reds (faster)to blues and purples and down to greens, with bands of color staying apparently quite vivid. I , on the other hand, saw no colors at all, except for the tiniest bit of green in the center of he rotating one. I wonder if this is related to the motion sickness thing, as i do not suffer, but my family does
Luke
Vancouver, wa usa - Tuesday, November 21, 2000 at 09:59:37 (EST)

I started to see purple and green not just black and white.
arianna
Bklyn, NY United States - Tuesday, November 07, 2000 at 15:35:58 (EST)

I saw some dark green teeth and dark blueish purple teeth. The colors switched when I reversed the movement direction. I saw the same colors in both experiments, no matter what speed, but they were clearer in the round-motion.
Jonathan Ganzi
Tel Aviv, Israel - Saturday, November 04, 2000 at 09:01:07 (EST)

ur illusion is green in the midle i think u put it green there when it spins :)
Vu
Adel, SA Aus - Wednesday, October 25, 2000 at 20:21:07 (EDT)

I saw black and whites shifting to maroon. The narrow black lines appeared maroon. The color change was proportional to the speed. Is this due to the red shift?
Alan Zimmerman
Guilford, CT usa - Saturday, October 21, 2000 at 11:42:38 (EDT)

I saw black teeth and green teeth, the geen colors were always on the points that wre facing the direction of the motion the points going "backwards" were the ones that appeared black.
Michele
Ma USA - Monday, October 16, 2000 at 13:12:04 (EDT)

Yes...it certainly does cause motionsickness. I used to get motion sick looking off a pier, though. Blah. Yes, I saw colors, even when it was still and my eyes flicked across it. I see green on the left-facing white bars. I see pinkish on the right-facing white bars. Both rotation and linear work well. Somehow, we are accidentally activating blobs with the strong activation throughout striate cortex? If it makes folks sick so easily, there's some sort of contrary motion/visual information processing going on; non-geniculocortical? I also had a lot of trouble not following the motion with my eyes...at times ended up a nystagamus-type motion going on.
Gail Taylor
San Antonio, Tx USA - Friday, October 13, 2000 at 14:28:19 (EDT)

I saw the wheel go back and forth and it seemd as if the colors were changing. They stayed balck and white, but the background of the wheel rotated from black to white.
unknown, un unknown - Thursday, October 12, 2000 at 19:38:15 (EDT)

I saw the colors dark red and a little bit of green! It felt really cool! The best one was the rotating! I saw the color about everywhere! There wasn't anything unusal.
David
- Wednesday, October 11, 2000 at 16:23:38 (EDT)

I saw pink and blue. Blue with the 'prongs' facing forward and pink, backwards.
Peter Baldwin
morristown, nj usa - Tuesday, October 10, 2000 at 16:04:09 (EDT)

The rotating illusion was the only one i saw color in. At first, i saw pale green on the inside half and dark purple on the outside half. When i reversed the motion, purple appeared on the inside and green on the outside. Very interesting!
Mark Rohleder
- Tuesday, October 03, 2000 at 22:18:03 (EDT)

I saw four colors. Of Course, I spotted the black and white but right in between of them was green and on others was purple.
Spartacus
BremudaTriangle, FL Austrailia - Friday, September 29, 2000 at 14:31:19 (EDT)

I looked again, still nothing. I'm going to get an eye test!
holly -b- :-) ( I'm back!)
- Friday, September 29, 2000 at 09:32:16 (EDT)

I think this website is really cool, but i didn't see any colours. after reading your guestbook, i think something is wrong with me!I will look again and write again to say if i saw any colours! Wait a sec......
holly -b- :-)
- Friday, September 29, 2000 at 09:27:20 (EDT)

I saw colors. Green and white, black, grey, pink. Outside the black, mainly the white. Rotating works best.
Happy Gilmoure
Graham, WA United States - Sunday, September 03, 2000 at 15:37:11 (EDT)

I saw brown concentric circles in the center of the rotating design. Cool! The linear motion one never worked for me. Will try again!
KTY1955
Austin, Tx USA - Monday, August 28, 2000 at 15:21:42 (EDT)

I saw colours immediately around the comb-shaped bits, black and white everfference to me. Here's my theory (don't bother if you're in a hurry ;o)): It is known that white light is a mixture of three colours (red,green,blue) and human eyes have two types of light-sensitive cell: 'rods' which only tell light from dark, and 'cones' which each detect one of the three colours. I think the cones in my eyes responsible for detecting blue light react or update faster than those for red light, with green light somewhere in between: so on the edge where white is being replaced by black, the blue part of the image is lost first before the red cones have noticed and it looks reddish for a moment. On the other side, black is replaced by white but the red-detecting cones take a bit longer to notice, so it looks blue until they get their act together. I tried testing this by turning the brightness right down on my monitor, because cones are less sensitive than rods. As I turned it down, the bluish colour became less obvious, then when it got dim enough the colours disappeared. (I could still see the black and white.) I've also tried looking at it through coloured filters, which make the colours dissapear, but with a red filter the parts that were red look lighter than the rest. I think that shows that those cone cells are updating slower than the rods. I hope you can make some sense of that, and I'm open to being proved wrong. I think a truly colourblind person would not see the illusion, but most 'colourblind' people can see some colour - they just can't tell red from green, so they would probably see the illusion much as the rest of us. Thanks for giving me something to think about.
TheCatMan
England - Wednesday, August 23, 2000 at 08:38:17 (EDT)

i saw green on the linear one when i pumped it up to speed it lost some color, but it still looked cool
hempy
co usa - Monday, August 21, 2000 at 06:38:58 (EDT)

Yes, I saw colors, but the effect was much more pronounced in the rotating version. The colors were brown (sometimes shading to maroon), shades of blue (from sky blue to navy), and a sort of pale yellow/cream color. The effect was most pronounced at a speed of 85-90. Not a clue about what's happening here!
Kate Newton
- Wednesday, August 02, 2000 at 03:50:32 (EDT)

I didn't see anything with either of them.... I dunno, maybe I'm just weird
Michael
- Monday, July 31, 2000 at 14:24:11 (EDT)

I liked the rotating illusion best at speed 95 - by switching between normal and "reverse", the inner and outer sections alternate between black(ish) and white(ish).
Alex Van Starrex
Sydney, NSW Australia - Monday, July 31, 2000 at 03:14:48 (EDT)

I have a subjective color machine which does a better job seeing the illusions. I understand the problems of using the computer to have enough speed. A moving Ouchi may do the job for you. I get reports of color in different sizes of the illusion if you see colors when listening to music. About one in ten will see color in one of three shapes from small to large. I used subjective color to get 5 color blind people see blue for yellow/blue color blind. So your approach is valueable for my interest. Another procedure that may work is a moving pain illusion. About 1 in 15 report seeing some color in a simple picture. Ron Blue rcb5@msn.com http://turn.to/ai
Ron Blue
Allentown, PA USA - Tuesday, July 25, 2000 at 11:35:45 (EDT)

Answers: Yes. Very dark brown-green. It varied. Both were quite vivid. No. No.
Stephen Hart
Ramsey, MN USA - Friday, July 21, 2000 at 08:12:52 (EDT)

I saw black and white. Nothing else. It was a big disappointment... But after reading the guestbook, I think your applet works, and maybe it is me that is broken.
Adam
- Thursday, July 20, 2000 at 10:33:34 (EDT)

Yes, Green and Navy. The black centre and outer circles. Both patterns work well.
Su Drzewicka
Sandton, South Africa - Tuesday, July 18, 2000 at 08:08:09 (EDT)

It was really kool. It lookes yellow then green then purple and if u looked at it in a certain way it looked really slow then when u looked at it again it lookes like it was really fast.
Elizabeth
Belton, TX USA - Tuesday, July 11, 2000 at 20:01:03 (EDT)

The rotating worked better, I saw green towards the middle and a bit of blue further out,after looking at it for a while, even with it stopped the black looked green.
John Turner
England - Friday, July 07, 2000 at 06:18:31 (EDT)

When it was going clockwise in the middlle where the white was it went slightly purple, but when it went the other way it wasn't as purple.Can you do more illusions.
Annie Altman
England - Monday, July 03, 2000 at 14:23:26 (EDT)

You need to add more speed to the picture.
Tiffany Baucham
Waco, TX US - Wednesday, June 28, 2000 at 14:29:03 (EDT)

I saw a dot in the middle that turned from black to white
zach
- Saturday, June 24, 2000 at 21:12:16 (EDT)

I saw absolutely nothing. I tried it every way imagineable, but saw nothing. I guess this relates to the fact that I can't see anything in magic eye books either.
Laura
Harpursville, NY USA - Wednesday, June 21, 2000 at 12:44:12 (EDT)

On the default motion setting, the inner bars were green, while the outer bars appeared to be navy blue or maybe even black. Of course, when I reversed the motion, the colors switched. It seemed that on every speed setting, I saw the same colors, although on slower speeds, it was more difficult to make them out. Luckily I have a strong stomach, so there was no need to take a break.
Jacob Mayfield
Taylorsville, KY US - Friday, June 09, 2000 at 00:29:17 (EDT)

I think the illusions are very cool! I would like to see more of them. They are mind boogleing! It is awesome!I saw in the rotation red, blue, purple, and green! The ones going up and down didn't do anything for me!
Sheryl
jacksonville, fl usa - Wednesday, May 31, 2000 at 16:11:35 (EDT)

In my case, the rotating pattern worked better. The illusion was revealed much easier. Clockwise rotation resulted in perceiving blue centre and green periphery. This illusion was reversed with an anticlockwise rotation.
Christos Giachritsis
Birmingham, UK - Monday, May 15, 2000 at 06:43:40 (EDT)

1- yes 2- green 3- in the middle 4- both 5- no
Andreia
Cps, SP Brazil - Monday, May 08, 2000 at 18:54:14 (EDT)

I observed the rotating form together with my wife and my children (16 and 11 years old). Everybody saw other combinations of colors. But all saw red-yellow-pink colors in the (white)central area and blue-green colors in the excentric (white) area between the tooth, while the central tooth appeared red-brown. Rotating counterclockwise the location of the colors changed. Interestingly the children used higer speed to see any colors. An very interesting phenomena.
Dr. Horst Kaesmacher
Aachen, D germany - Thursday, May 04, 2000 at 09:21:18 (EDT)

The color I "saw" was a green to yellow green. Rotating motion seemed to "show" more color over the whole immage. The linear immage seemed to show stripes of color. Some nausa after about 30 seconds...
Mike
MI USA - Wednesday, April 19, 2000 at 22:08:44 (EDT)

The linear motion worked best for me. In the regions where the "teeth" are I saw a light blue and a light yellowish brown, sort of reminiscent of dirty snow.
Marv Kirk
Philomath, OR USA - Friday, April 14, 2000 at 20:55:00 (EDT)

The advancing edges appeared green while the other appeared red. the effect was the same for both cases.
rudy gauthier
appleton, WI - Wednesday, April 12, 2000 at 00:12:50 (EDT)

I didn't see anything but black and white going in the direction or movement I directed it to.
Sharrod
Carrollton, G.A. USA - Tuesday, April 11, 2000 at 22:41:32 (EDT)

I saw redness along the edges (where the black ends and white begins--there was about 5mm of faded redness) while viewing the thing at the default speed.
diana palmieri
tallahassee, FL USA - Sunday, April 02, 2000 at 23:49:48 (EDT)

I got a security violation error message using Netscape Communicator 4.7 on a Power Mac G3 on the Fechner illusions. Others are great! JV
J Vaughan
- Saturday, April 01, 2000 at 07:23:09 (EST)

i saw a dark green at first, when watching the rotating illusion.after awhile i started to see a brownish color then a minute later i finally saw a dark purple color near the mid-area of the illusion
chris
long beach, ca usa - Thursday, March 30, 2000 at 23:10:03 (EST)

I saw nothing in the linear one, and in the circular, I saw topaz on the back of the lines whilst on clickwise, and no colors counter-clockwise. I also saw lines radiating out from the middle and ripples along the outside.
Tom Blackwell
Vancouver, BC Canada - Tuesday, March 28, 2000 at 20:27:37 (EST)

I could only see black & white using numerous speeds and angles..
Ben
London, UK - Tuesday, March 28, 2000 at 11:31:22 (EST)

Horizontally I saw predominantly B&W with only an occasional hint of color around the edges of each "tooth", for lack of a better word (or "key" as in "piano keys"). Running it vertically, however, I saw alternating vertical rows of indigo and khaki green!
Nancy Enright
Springfield, IL usa - Friday, March 24, 2000 at 11:43:28 (EST)

The circular was easiest to see a greater difference in color. Like most people in the linear it was greenish, but in the circular the color varied yellowish to red, depended on the speed lower was yellow. Enjoyed your site. Alex
Alex
Calgary, Ab Canada - Thursday, March 23, 2000 at 18:33:52 (EST)

I saw purple in the center of the spinning applet. Thanks for introducing me to the Fechner Illusion! Great site!
Sybil Jones
Lawrence, KS USA - Thursday, March 23, 2000 at 10:44:42 (EST)

I saw color better on the rotating one - mostly in the the inner 1/2 (of diameter/radius). Looked kind of greeny-yellow.
Melanie
Russellville, AR USA - Monday, March 20, 2000 at 08:56:06 (EST)

yes i saw colours.inner wheel had a yellowish tinge on the edges and the outer had purplish tinge.rotating motion works better.
anitha
coimbatore, tn india - Thursday, March 09, 2000 at 00:16:14 (EST)

when i put it on really fast on the rotating one i saw a sun flower with a yellow middle..pretty neat stuff
Grace Hurley
tehachapi, ca us - Wednesday, March 08, 2000 at 17:00:04 (EST)

Hey! this is pretty cool! i saw green lines when they were supposed to be black!
Daniel Chao
- Tuesday, February 29, 2000 at 03:42:35 (EST)

Absolutely brill, I was really surprised when I acctualy sawb colour.
John Gavin
- Thursday, February 17, 2000 at 09:43:46 (EST)

hey i saw green with brown edges and the wrest was red, i thin ki looked at it wrong, ha ha
Ryan Webb
richmond, va - Tuesday, February 15, 2000 at 20:22:45 (EST)

Did not see color at any speed on either illusion. Maybe some people won"t see it.
Hayden E. Chapman
Columbus, OH Franklin - Monday, February 14, 2000 at 23:12:17 (EST)

I saw yellow (dark) and blue (bright). I saw them best in the rotating version, but I did see them in the other one too. The colours switched places when I reversed the rotation. When the 'wheel' was turning to the right, I saw blue in the middle and yellow around it. When turning left, it was they other way round.
Lieve
Netherlands, the - Monday, February 14, 2000 at 08:12:28 (EST)

I saw brownish yellwoish in the middle and blue on the outside. This was on the fastest setting.
Vikki
Shepperton, TW17 8JY England - Wednesday, February 09, 2000 at 14:32:56 (EST)

I saw green/ purple on linear problem.
Daniel
- Sunday, February 06, 2000 at 10:56:09 (EST)

great site...say some green in the middle
ramona
- Saturday, February 05, 2000 at 12:58:27 (EST)

what a crazy thing.. the first thing i saw was black and green moving on white.. then after reading what you said.. about seeing brown, or yellow.. or .. purple.. i went back and looked again. I only saw.. black and green... My eye color is blue if that makes any difference at all...
lynda
seattle, wa usa - Thursday, February 03, 2000 at 19:23:55 (EST)

I saw green in both the linear, and the rotating, but I saw it the best with the rotating illusion. I saw it closer to the middle than the outside.
katie
USA - Tuesday, February 01, 2000 at 22:02:23 (EST)

Saw a dark red tint on the short lines facing to the right and dark blue or even a deep green on the opposing short lines.
Linda Jacob
Huntsville, AL - Wednesday, January 26, 2000 at 15:26:21 (EST)

On the rotating illusion I saw a gray-green outside the circle
Brian
- Monday, January 24, 2000 at 21:58:53 (EST)

Neat! I saw color. On the rotating illusion I saw light blue and faint pinkish-red. When reversed, the colors switched positions. The linear experiment was easier to visualize. I saw the same colors, only stronger. I assume that this illusion is an effect of image/afterimage. The retina retains an image for a brief period after viewing an object. To 'erase' the image from the retina, a negative of what you are seeing is interpreted in the brain. Because the image is constantly coming into the retina and the brain is trying to compensate for it, we see the 'colors' continually. The same effect responisble for allowing us to view a motion picture or a cartoon.
Dave Wade
Hermitage, MO USA - Monday, January 24, 2000 at 17:10:28 (EST)

hmm....interesting....I saw a brownish-reddish color with a bright yellow border on the rotating Fechner......this illusion is very cool...
Dimitri
- Thursday, January 20, 2000 at 17:22:51 (EST)

yes,i saw color. the color i saw was a purple kind of color. the areas that had color were the areas right next to the straight edges of white. they both worked very well. i did not see anything that .
Caitlin
sarasota, fl. USA - Tuesday, January 18, 2000 at 09:04:31 (EST)

I think the linear motion shows more varied colors. The rotating one only shows different colors if u stare at one black spot, and follow it around in a circle. That's neat though...i wish i could put stuff like that on the internet. ~Alana
alana
- Saturday, January 15, 2000 at 21:26:55 (EST)

Fascinating that different people see different colors. When either pattern way moves in the direction such that the black horizontal stripes precede the white ones, I see red. When movement is reversed (white horizontal stripes precede black ones), I see blue. Above applies for both linear and rotating patterns.
Anthony Bailey
- Friday, January 14, 2000 at 10:19:59 (EST)

I need some help. Any Mac users have any luck with this? I'm getting a "java can't start. security violation. error" Powermac 6360, Sonnet G3, OS 9.
jsl
Chester, NY 10918 - Sunday, January 09, 2000 at 11:33:21 (EST)

center appeared yellow, outward was green.
phillip young
louisville, ky USA - Friday, December 31, 1999 at 13:06:07 (EST)

I did see colors, blue and magenta on the tips of the lines. I saw it most distinctly in the linear one when they are going up and down (either one had the same effect) This is such a trip.
kristine
Las Vegas, NV - Thursday, December 30, 1999 at 16:29:01 (EST)

I observed a greenish effect.
Cyrus J
Anttown, Mi US - Sunday, December 26, 1999 at 18:06:46 (EST)

There is both purple and yellow. It is more destinct on the circular fechner. When viewed at a high speed there is very much more color than at slower speeds. After viewing for a long time I now am dizzy and have a headache. It seems the brain cannot view the destinction between white and black at the speed it goes at, so it stretches out the color differance between the two. ie purple is oppisite yellow. I want to look into this further
Elliott
EP, MN US - Wednesday, December 22, 1999 at 23:29:09 (EST)

When rotating in one direction, the tines appeared red. When rotating in the other direction, the other set of tines appeared red. This was more prominent at the faster speeds, and was more apparent if my eyes were slightly unfocused.
Dan Barineau
Houston, Tx USA - Tuesday, December 21, 1999 at 09:08:12 (EST)

Linear: Horizontal: 'E' moving to right was red; '3' was green. When direction was reversed, colors swapped i.e., 'E' moving to left was green). Vertical: 'W' moving down was blue, 'M' was yellow. When direction was reversed, colors did not swap. Circular: Moving clockwise, 'E' was yellow, '3' was blue, although the lower part of the disk sometimes tinged with red. When direction reversed, colors swapped. The colors seemed to fade the longer I looked, although that may be due to my eyes drifting across after a while.
Linda Garcia
Riverside, CA USA - Friday, December 17, 1999 at 01:02:53 (EST)

I saw a small diamond flashing colors in the rotating one, but I only saw a grey outline in the linear one.
Tim
ME US - Thursday, December 16, 1999 at 08:49:40 (EST)

I am partially colorblind in the blue/green range. On the linear, I saw a mid-brown. On the rotating, I could see a purplish-red.
John Longnecker
Cedar Falls, IA USA - Tuesday, December 14, 1999 at 20:26:06 (EST)

thats odd.. I didnt see any color variences but I did feel kinda sea sick...
LyteSoul
Chicago, IL USA - Wednesday, December 08, 1999 at 04:45:53 (EST)

In the linear motion one, i saw a stripe of green as the only other color below the little + thing in the middle, when i reversed direction the green strip was up above
Neil
US - Sunday, November 21, 1999 at 19:49:22 (EST)

I´ve seen red in the left edge and purplish green in the other... :)
Joni
USA - Friday, November 19, 1999 at 21:57:38 (EST)

Welcome to the Fechner Illusion Guestbook. This illusion affects different people in different ways. I hope this guestbook will turn up some interesting differences.
Mark Newbold
Montpelier, VT USA - Tuesday, November 16, 1999 at 17:06:41 (EST)

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