Hypnotic Circles - Moiré Effect, connection to migraine?

[Chillheimer]

I discovered this fascinating effect in fractal extreme
(if you have epilepsy, don't watch!)

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/QdDbMnwqr1o&rel=1&fs=1&hd=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/v/QdDbMnwqr1o&rel=1&fs=1&hd=1</a>

My mother in law told me that the patterns that blink in the end are very similar to those she sees during a heavy migraine attack. Can anyone confirm this?
I find this extremely fascinating and think more research is necessary.



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edit: why doesn't it embed the video automatically? usually just pasting a youtube link showed the video window here, if i remember correctly..

[hobold]

The optical illusions of some migraine patients are called "auras", if I remember correctly. They are said to be caused by (comparably very mild) epileptical disturbances in the part of the brain which processes information coming from the eyes.

Migraine is not the only thing that can cause auras, but perhaps the most common cause of this uncommon phenomenon.

[Sockratease]

edit: why doesn't it embed the video automatically? usually just pasting a youtube link showed the video window here, if i remember correctly..

You used an https link instead of standard http - the secure link may be preventing the embed.  Here it is with the "s" deleted making it a standard http link :

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/QdDbMnwqr1o&rel=1&fs=1&hd=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/QdDbMnwqr1o&rel=1&fs=1&hd=1</a>

[Kalles Fraktaler]

You used an https link instead of standard http - the secure link may be preventing the embed.  Here it is with the "s" deleted making it a standard http link :

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/QdDbMnwqr1o&rel=1&fs=1&hd=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/QdDbMnwqr1o&rel=1&fs=1&hd=1</a>

But not too many embedded videos allowed per view?
http://www.fractalforums.com/movies-showcase-(rate-my-movie)/my-reward/

Anyway, this movie is very cool and very odd

[Dinkydau]

Wow, that is very interesting! I wonder what happens if you zoom even further.

[simon.snake]

It looks like you have used a non-standard Mandelbrot plugin to get the colouring to be like that.

Can you give more details?

[Chillheimer]

sorry for the late answer, but better late then never
hey simon, I',m sorry but I can't give more details, it's an older video and I don't even have fractal xtreme(4) installed anymore as KF has taken its place..
but i remember it was one of the standard presets and think it had "mandelbrot" in the name.. not sure.. but the first view after loading looks exactly as the start of the video, with the strangely "sharp" areas where the spots are that keep producing thinner and thinner circles.
I have no idea why this is as it is..
I wanted to zoom deeper, but you have to keep zooming right in the center of the rings, and the further you zoom in the more noise you see. without moving pictures you only see noise, no moire effect, thus you can't make out the middle where to zoom in anymore.. maybe someone else finds a better way

[Dinkydau]

You can zoom further by increasing the gradient speed and acceleration. If you set both those settings to the max values, you can go very far. I think it's just an imposed maximum, though. Technically, the settings should be able to be set at much higher values than the program allows, allowing you to zoom as far as you want.

I use kalles fraktaler as well, but in fractal extreme you can still have those other fractal formulas. This type of video cannot be rendered in kalles fraktaler.

[tit_toinou]

You don't need to explore fractal to see theses patterns.

I've seen theses just by looking at complex function like complex polynomial !
Even more interesting patterns like weird spirals emerge from complex rationals functions or the complex exponential. I can make a little render if you want.

Explanation : when the derivative is too big the image gets very little and theses patterns emerge if one doesn't do anti-aliasing - that's my case.


The connection between theses patterns and what's happening in the retina would be interesting !
I can see this kind of stuff when I'm tired || the contrast changes rapidly || I touch (and introduce dust into) my opening to nasolacrimal duct of one of my eyes (I don't really know how it's refered to - I can see in a french scheme it is named "angle interne" however that's the part of the eye that is the closest to the nose).

[simon.snake]

I still haven't found that exact layout of the Mandelbrot fractal within Fractal eXtreme (with those small defects), though.

Wonder what plugin it was?

Does look similar to a formula I created in FractInt:

Here's a deeply zoomed image first, followed with progressive zooms out:




















As you can see, the moire effect gets more detailed as I zoom out (well, technically, they got less detailed the more I zoomed in).

The original formula is here:

Code:

simon0136-A {
  ; real(p2) = circle radius
  ; imag(p2) = chunkiness
  rad = real(p2)
  if (rad==0)
    rad = 2
  endif
  ch  = imag(p2)
  if (ch==0)
    ch = 1000
  endif
  z = p = pixel
  ;x = real(p)
  ;y = imag(p)
  r = 128 + 64 * real(p)
  i = 128 + 64 * imag(p)
  flag = 0    ; flag for bailout check
  counter = 0 ; misc. counter

  ; work out chunkiness
  fct = (ch*r)/ch
  fcx = ceil(fct)-floor(fct)
  fct = (ch*i)/ch
  fcy = ceil(fct)-floor(fct)

  fdx = x / fcx
  fdy = y / fcy
  fd  = flip(fdy) + fdx

  ; Check if the current pixel is within rad
  if (|fd| < |rad|)
    counter = counter + p * r
  else
    counter = counter + p * i
  endif:

  ; do this for every iteration
  counter = counter - 1
  if (counter < 1)
    flag = 1
  endif

  ; check if we have 'finished'
  flag == 0
}

I'm not entirely sure what the formula is doing.  I make things up as I go along mostly, and get quite interested when I produce something that's different  .

I think the palette I used had something to do with the way it looks, but this sort of thing has long intrigued me.