If you stare at this image, it allegedly "disappears"

[beschizza]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/01/09/if-you-stare-at-this-image-it.html

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[stephen_schenck]

Isn’t that true of any image?

It’s harder to do with lots of sharp edges, as any tiny eye movement ruins the effect, but I feel like this happens everywhere.

[jimbydude]

Works for me, but blinking interrupts it

[Sid_Ceaser]

If you let your eyes go soft and “look past” the image, it does vanish to white. Very cool.

Eyeballs working: check.

[Mark_Sniadecki]

I got it to partially work–but even the slightest flick of the eye brings it all back.

[cannibalpeas]

Yeah, this sort of illustion doesn’t often work for me, but this one does. As @stephen_schenck points out, there isn’t any real definition, so my eyes don’t jump around ruining the effect. Retinal burn-in.

[Faffenreffer]

What image?

[joey_bladb]

There was a BB article a few months back talking about why this happens: the blood vessels and optic nerves exit the retina in front of it, so the brain evolved a way to ignore them by simply removing anything in the visual field that remains static long enough.

[marcus_mcmullan]

I have Nystagmus so i can’t keep my eyes still long enough to see the effect but if i look at say a grid, i can easily blank out either the vertical or horizontal lines at will… Go figure.

[heligo]

These things never normally work for me but this image did actually disappear. Now with my new found powers i need to revisit magic eye pictures.

[RigelT]

Interesting, some are saying it dissolves to white, but for me the contents of the orange panel dissolve and I’m left with a blank orange panel. Until I refocus, of course.

[Arduenn]

Works for me. But the yellow stays, partially.

[RadioSilence]

yeah, me too

[anon15383236]

All it did for me is fade a bit, and then I got a headache.

Damn you and your painful imagery, Rob!

[agies]

I suspect that if I stare at this image I will disappear from my job.

[KathyPartdeux]

I can’t see it right now?

[L0ki]

@stephen_schenck

Isn’t that true of any image?

@joey_bladb

There was a BB article a few months back talking about why this happens: the blood vessels and optic nerves exit the retina in front of it, so the brain evolved a way to ignore them by simply removing anything in the visual field that remains static long enough.

Relevant short story:

Feminine Endings by Neil Gaiman.

Read by Neil here:

Neil Gaiman, "Feminine Endings"

[CLamb]

Yes, but the human visual system amplifies the edges thereby making them harder to ignore.

[cepheus42]

Same here. It took me years to finally start seeing them, and I can only shrug now and wonder what the big deal was that made those folks millions of dollars. But if you want to try again, search for magic eye in google and go to their site, they have lots of old images still there you can practice on. I tested one just now, and was as underwhelmed as when I first learned the trick. I think stereoscopes have a much more interesting 3D effect.

[Boundegar]

O shit it made my monitor disappear.