Motion Blindness

This page contains information about the motion blindness, sometimes called the fading dots. The topic is related to the optical illusions. To see how the brain could be tricked look below and read the instructions. You will be amazed to know the psychology of the mind and how it reacts to stimulations. For more tricks check our Brain Tricks main page.

Tips for the motion blindness: On the right you see a rotating array of blue crosses and 3 yellow dots. Now fixate on the centre (watch the flashing green spot). Note that the yellow spots disappear once in a while: singly, in pairs or all three simultaneously. In reality, the 3 yellow spots are continuously present, honest! This is captively called “motion induced blindness” or MIB.

Notes: You can use the slower/faster buttons to change speed. Disappearance persists down to surprisingly low speeds.
You can use the smaller / larger buttons to change size. Disappearance persists up to surprisingly large sizes.
You change the colour of the rotating crosses, the dots and the background. The dots disappear into whatever colour the background has.
The “grating on/off” button allows to observe the filling-in process more closely: when the grid is visible, it continues through the vanishing yellow dots.
The ‘defaults’ button at the top restores the standard settings.

Trick of the Day: The moon when close to the horizon looks bigger than when it's in heart of the sky. That's because when it's close to the horizon, your eyes sees it in comparison to other parts of the horizon, such as trees, mountains and houses, and that's what makes it look bigger. For more tricks and illusions of the day check Tricks of the Day.

This Motion Blindness is just one of the many resources of the optical illusions showing how the brain can be fooled. Don't you wonder what other aspects in life we take for granted could be very different from how we perceive them? Choose a related page, or simply click on previous/ next.