This is rather spiffy

This was the winner of the Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest 2010 and is by Koukichi Sugihara of the Meiji Institute for Advanced Study of Mathematical Sciences, Japan.

In this video, wooden balls roll up the slopes just as if they are pulled by a magnet. The behavior of the balls seems impossible, because it is against the gravity. The video is not a computer graphic, but a real scene. What is actually happening is that the orientations of the slopes are perceived oppositely, and hence the descending motion is misinterpreted as ascending motion. This illusion is remarkable in that it is generated by a three-dimensional solid object and physical motion, instead of a two-dimensional picture.

It makes a very good illusion, don't you think?

Cool, says the book geek

By Japanese art director and copywriter Masashi Kawamura, the Rainbow In Your Hand flip book has an image of the color spectrum against a black background on each page. As you flip through the pages, it creates an illusion of a rainbow that seems to be suspended in the air above the book.

Here's another view:


Thanks to Bibliofuture of LISNews for the link to the first video and the information behind it.