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Last week, vision scientists from around the world gathered at the annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, in Naples, Florida. One of the most highly anticipated events each year at the conference is the Illusion of the Year contest.
Here is this year's winning illusion, submitted by Koukichi Sugihara, of the Meiji Institute for Advanced Study of Mathematical Sciences in Japan.
In this video, wooden balls roll up the slopes just as if they are pulled by a magnet. The behavior of the balls seems impossible, because it seems to defy gravity. This illusion is remarkable because it is generated by a three-dimensional solid object and physical motion, instead of a two-dimensional picture or animation.
Want to check out the rest of the contest's ten finalists? Here you go.
