Rotating snakes 14

I produced several variants of "Rotating snakes" because this work seems to be preferred by many people.

since September 2, 2011



"Rotating wagashi"

*wagashi = Japanese-style sweets

Disks appear to rotate.

Copyright Akiyoshi Kitaoka 2012 (September 23)




"Rotating wagashi snakes"

Disks appear to rotate.

Copyright Akiyoshi Kitaoka 2012 (September 23)



"Rotating snakes with Akiyoshi"

Disks appear to rotate. Being captured by illusory rotation, faces appear to move in the peripheral vision.

Copyright Akiyoshi Kitaoka 2012 (June 2)


The "optimized Fraser-Wilcox" illusion (including the "Rotating snakes" illusion)


Related references
<before April 29, 2012>

Ashida, H., Kuriki, I., Murakami, I., Hisakata, R. and Kitaoka, A. (2012 forthcoming). Direction-specific fMRI adaptation reveals the visual cortical network underlying the "Rotating Snakes" illusion. NeuroImage, in press new!

Otero-Millan, J.,Macknik, S. L., and Martinez-Conde, S. (2012). Microsaccades and Blinks Trigger Illusory Rotation in the “Rotating Snakes” Illusion. Journal of Neuroscience, 32, 6043-6051. new!

Stevanov, J., Marković, S., and Kitaoka, A. (2012). Aesthetic valence of visual illusions. i-Perception, 3(2), 112–140. PDF (i-Perception)

Yanaka, K. and Hilano, T. (2011). Mechanical shaking system to enhance "Optimized Fraser–Wilcox Illusion Type V". Perception, 40, ECVP Abstract Supplement, page 171

Tomimatsu E., Ito, H., Sunaga, S., & Remijn, G. B. (2011). Halt and recovery of illusory motion perception from peripherally viewed static images. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 73, 1823-1832.

Idesawa, M. (2010). A Model of Illusory Motion Perception in Still Figures. Optical Review, 17, 557–561.

Tomimatsu, E., Ito, H., Seno, T., and Sunaga, S. (2010). The ‘rotating snakes’ in smooth motion do not appear to rotate. Perception, 39, 721-724.

Fermüller, C., Ji, H., and Kitaoka, A. (2010). Illusory motion due to causal time filtering. Vision Research, 50, 315–329.

Scientific American Mind, Special Issue: 169 Best Illusions (2010).

Cantor, C. R. L., Tahir, H. J., & Schor, C. M. (2010). Is the rotating snakes an optical illusion? Journal of Vision, 10(7), 824a.

Kitaoka, A. (2010). Introduction to Visual Illusions. Tokyo: Asakura-shoten, pp.110-111 (in Japanese). More info

Billino, J., Hamburger, K., & Gegenfurtner, K. R. (2009). Age effects on the perception of motion illusions. Perception, 38, 508-521.

Kitaoka, A. (2008) Trick Eyes Mechanism. Tokyo: Kanzen (in Japanese). More info

Kuriki, I., Ashida, H., Murakami, I., and Kitaoka, A. (2008). Functional brain imaging of the Rotating Snakes illusion by fMRI. Journal of Vision, 8(10):16, 1-10. PDF

Journal of Vision    Volume 8, Number 10, Article 16, Pages 1-10
Functional brain imaging of the Rotating Snakes illusion by fMRI
Ichiro Kuriki
Hiroshi Ashida
Ikuya Murakami
Akiyoshi Kitaoka
http://journalofvision.org/8/10/16/

Kitaoka, A. (2008) Optimized Fraser-Wilcox illusions: A pictorial classification by Akiyoshi Kitaoka. Talk in a workshop (WS005) in the 72nd Annual Convention of the Japanese Psychological Association, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, September 19, 2008. Presentation (html)

Kuriki, I., Ashida, H., Murakami, I., and Kitaoka, A. (2008) Functional brain imaging of the 'Rotating Snakes' illusion. Vision Sciences Society Annual Meeting Abstract, Journal of Vision, 8(6),64a. http://www.journalofvision.org/8/6/64/

Hisakata, R. and Murakami, I. (2008) The effects of eccentricity and retinal illuminance on the illusory motion seen in a stationary luminance gradient. Vision Research, 49, 1940-1948.

Beer, A. L., Heckel, A. H. and Greenlee, M. W. (2008) A motion illusion reveals mechanisms of perceptual stabilization. PLoS ONE, 3(7): e2741, 1-7. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002741 Freely available online

Chi, M-T., Lee, T-Y., Qu, Y., and Wong, T-T. (2008) Self-Animating Images: Illusory Motion Using Repeated Asymmetric Patterns. ACM Transaction on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2008), 27, No.3. SIGGRAPH2008 --- Authors' page --- PDF (SIGGRAPH)

Scientific American Reports Special Edition on Perception (2008).

Kitaoka, A. and Ashida, H. (2007) A variant of the anomalous motion illusion based upon contrast and visual latency. Perception, 36, 1019-1035. PDF request to Akiyoshi Kitaoka

Newton Press (Ed.), A. Kitaoka (Supervisor) (2007) Newton magazine book: Special issue "How is the brain deceived? Perfect demonstration of visual illusions" Tokyo: Newton Press (in Japanese; published in October 2007). 

Ramachandran, V. S. and Rogers-Ramachandran, D. (2007) A Moving Experience: How the eyes can see movement where it does not exist. Scientific American Mind, February/March, 14-16.

Kitaoka, A. (2007) Phenomenal classification of the “optimized” Fraser-Wilcox illusion and the effect of color. Poster presentation in DemoNight, VSS2007, GWiz, Sarasota, Florida, USA, May 14, 2007.

Murakami, I., Kitaoka, A. and Ashida, H. (2006) A positive correlation between fixation instability and the strength of illusory motion in a static display. Vision Research, 46, 2421-2431. PDF request should be sent to Dr. Murakami

Kanazawa, S., Kitaoka, A., & Yamaguchi, M. K. (2006). Infants see the 'Rotating Snake' illusion. Perception, 35, ECVP Abstract Supplement.

Kitaoka, A. (2006). The effect of color on the optimized Fraser-Wilcox illusion. Paper presented for the 9th L'ORÉAL Art and Science of Color Prize, Tokyo (pp.1-16) (Gold prize was given). MS-Word manuscript (75MB)

Kitaoka, A. (2006) Anomalous motion illusion and stereopsis. Journal of Three Dimensional Images (Japan), 20, 9-14. PDF PDF (manuscript but the same as the printed one)

Kanazawa, S., Kitaoka, A. and Yamaguchi, M. K. (2006) Infants see the “Rotating Snake” illusion. Dorsal and ventral streams in the visual system (Talk): Monday, 21 August 2006; 12:00-12:30 (29th European Conference on Visual Perception, St-Petersburg, Russia, 20th-25th August, 2006) Abstract

Kitaoka, A., Ashida, H., and Murakami, I. (2005) Does the peripheral drift illusion generate illusory motion in depth? Journal of Three Dimensional Images (Tokyo), 19, 6-8. PDF (scanned copy) (poor quality) --- MS-Word file (manuscript, the same as the paper) (high quality)

Conway, R. B., Kitaoka, A., Yazdanbakhsh, A., Pack, C. C., and Livingstone, M. S. (2005) Neural basis for a powerful static motion illusion. Journal of Neuroscience, 25, 5651-5656.

Backus, B. T. and Oruç, I. (2005) Illusory motion from change over time in the response to contrast and luminance. Journal of Vision, 5, 1055-1069. http://journalofvision.org/5/11/10/

Kitaoka, A. (2005) Trick Eyes Graphics. Tokyo: Kanzen (in Japanese and English). More info

Kitaoka, A. and Ashida, H. (2003) Phenomenal characteristics of the peripheral drift illusion. VISION (Journal of the Vision Society of Japan), 15, 261-262. PDF

Naor-Raz, G. and Sekuler, R. (2000) Perceptual dimorphism in visual motion from stationary patterns. Perception, 29, 325-335.

Faubert, J. and Herbert, A. M. (1999) The peripheral drift illusion: A motion illusion in the visual periphery. Perception, 28, 617-621.

Fraser, A. and Wilcox, K. J. (1979) Perception of illusory movement. Nature, 281, 565-566.


"Rotating snakes"

(a remake in 2012)

Disks appear to rotate.

Copyright Akiyoshi Kitaoka 2003, 2012 (April 14)


"Red rotating snakes 2011"

Disks appear to rotate.

Copyright Akiyoshi Kitaoka 2011 (September 30)

"Red rotating snakes 2011 with motion blur"

Disks appear to rotate.

Copyright Akiyoshi Kitaoka 2011 (September 30)



"Rotating red snakes: Earthenware"

Each ring appears to rotate.

Copyright Akiyoshi Kitaoka 2011 (September 5)



"Rotating red snakes at night: Earthenware"

Each ring appears to rotate a little. The direction is the reversal of "Rotating red snakes: Earthenware".

Copyright Akiyoshi Kitaoka 2011 (September 5)



"Rotating snakes: Dark"

Each disk appears to rotate.

Copyright Akiyoshi Kitaoka 2011 (September 2)



"Rotating snakes Dark: Mini"

The left disk appears to rotate counterclockwise while the right one clockwise.

Copyright Akiyoshi Kitaoka 2011 (September 2)



"Rotating snakes: Dark 2"

Each disk appears to rotate.

Copyright Akiyoshi Kitaoka 2011 (September 2)



"Rotating snakes Dark 2: Mini"

The left disk appears to rotate clockwise while the right one counterclockwise.

Copyright Akiyoshi Kitaoka 2011 (September 2)


Rotating snakes 13

Rotating snakes 12

Rotating snakes 11

Rotating snakes 10

Rotating snakes 9

Rotating snakes 8

Rotating snakes 7

Rotating snakes 6

Rotating snakes 5

Rotating snakes 4

Rotating snakes 3

Rotating snakes 2

Rotating snakes 1


Top page