April 18, 2013

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The TOP 10 Illusions of the Year Have Been Announced

By Susana Martinez-Conde

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


The Best Illusion of the Year Contest is happy to announce the TOP TEN illusions of 2013!

The 2013 Contest Gala will be on Monday, May 13th, in the Philharmonic Center of Arts (Naples Fl). The TOP TEN illusions will be shown for the first time at the Gala, and posted on the Best Illusion of the Year Contest's website immediately afterwards. Who will the TOP THREE winners be? That’s up to you! The live audience will choose them from the current TOP TEN list.

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2013 TOP TEN ILLUSION CONTESTANTS (alphabetical order):

Through the Eyes of Giants, by Arash Afraz and Ken Nakayama (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, USA)

Dynamic Size Contrast Illusion- or the incredibly shrinking/growing shape!, by Gideon Caplovitz (University of Nevada Reno, USA)

Rotation or Deformation? A Surprising Consequence of the Kinetic Depth Effect, by Attila Frakas and Alen Hajnal (University of Southern Mississippi, USA)

Non-trackable Moving Dots Look faster, by Alan Ho and Stuart Anstis (Ambrose University College, Canada, and UC San Diego, USA)

Rotation Generated by Translation, by Jun Ono, Akiyasu Tomoeda and Kokichi Sugihara (Meiji University and CREST, Japan)

Dancing Diamond, by Michael Pickard and Alessandro Soranzo (University of Sunderland and Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom)

The Disappearing Smoke – Disappearing Pleasure!, by Sidney Pratt, Martha Sanchez and Karla Rovira (Sin Humo, Costa Rica)

Tusi or not Tusi, by Arthur Shapiro and Alex Rose-Henig (American University, USA)

The Knobby Sphere Illusion, by Peter Tse (Dartmouth College, USA)

Three-fold cubes: Objects whose form can be interpreted in three different ways, by Guy Wallis and David Lloyd (University of Queensland, Australia)

 

Susana Martinez-Conde is a professor of ophthalmology, neurology, and physiology and pharmacology at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn, N.Y. She is author of the Prisma Prize–winning Sleights of Mind, along with Stephen Macknik and Sandra Blakeslee, and of Champions of Illusion, along with Stephen Macknik.

More by Susana Martinez-Conde

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