Entering an invisible doorway to catch a train at King's Cross station in London is a renowned fictional scene from the Harry Potter series. In recent decades, physicists have been trying to produce a similar effect by focusing ...
(PhysOrg.com) -- By controlling how light bends around an object, researchers have built a shrinking device that makes objects appear smaller than they actually are. Although the original object does not actually shrink, ...
(PhysOrg.com) -- By making multiple objects appear to look like only one using a "perfect lens," scientists have demonstrated a new optical illusion that could have practical applications in lighting systems. Normally, a ...
(PhysOrg.com) -- In a twist on the concept of an invisibility cloak, researchers have designed a material that not only makes an object invisible, but also generates one or more virtual images in its place. Because it doesn't ...
(PhysOrg.com) -- Science fiction and fantasy tales are full of the ability to "cloak" characters with invisibility. Whether it is a spaceship with a cloaking device, or a young wizard with an invisibility cloak, the interest ...
The great Laurel-or-Yanny debate of 2018 was so fun because it shined a light on the often-illusory nature of auditory perception. What you hear may not be the same as what somebody else hears. Or, perhaps what you hear could ...
Social Sciences
Jun 8, 2018
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(Phys.org)—A team of researchers from France and the Slovak Republic has proposed a theory to explain the water-like streaks that appear seasonally on the surface of Mars, which do not involve water. In their paper published ...
New research using data from NASA's Cassini mission suggests most of the eruptions from Saturn's moon Enceladus might be diffuse curtains rather than discrete jets. Many features that appear to be individual jets of material ...
Space Exploration
May 6, 2015
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745
(Phys.org) —A diverse group of researchers led by a team out of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has dispelled the notion that the Amazon basin becomes greener during times of less rain. In their paper published in the ...
As striking as it is, the illusion of depth now routinely offered by 3-D movies is a paltry facsimile of a true three-dimensional visual experience. In the real world, as you move around an object, your perspective on it ...
Engineering
Jul 12, 2012
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An illusion is a distortion of the senses, revealing how the brain normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. While illusions distort reality, they are generally shared by most people. Illusions may occur with more of the human senses than vision, but visual illusions, optical illusions, are the most well known and understood. The emphasis on visual illusions occurs because vision often dominates the other senses. For example, individuals watching a ventriloquist will perceive the voice is coming from the dummy since they are able to see the dummy mouth the words. Some illusions are based on general assumptions the brain makes during perception. These assumptions are made using organizational principles, like Gestalt, an individual's ability of depth perception and motion perception, and perceptual constancy. Other illusions occur because of biological sensory structures within the human body or conditions outside of the body within one’s physical environment.
The term illusion refers to a specific form of sensory distortion. Unlike a hallucination, which is a distortion in the absence of a stimulus, an illusion describes a misinterpretation of a true sensation. For example, hearing voices regardless of the environment would be a hallucination, whereas hearing voices in the sound of running water (or other auditory source) would be an illusion.
Mimes are known for a repertoire of illusions that are created by physical means. The mime artist creates an illusion of acting upon or being acted upon by an unseen object. These illusions exploit the audience's assumptions about the physical world. Well known examples include "walls", "climbing stairs", "leaning", "descending ladders", "pulling and pushing" etc.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
