When playing Guitar Hero, my eyes do wonky things.

April 12, 2008 9:10 PM

When playing Guitar Hero, my eyes do wonky things.

When playing Guitar Gyro (or watching someone play) on a large screen TV, my eyes become wonky after focusing somewhere other than the screen. It appears as if other objects are "growing" or "breathing" after I draw my attention away from the television.

Does anyone else experience this? What is this optical illusion? I feel like I'm on heavy psychedelic drugs.

posted by c:\awesome to grab bag (14 answers total)

I don't know what it's called but I see it too. So does everyone else who has ever been over my house and played...they've all commented on it.
posted by cabingirl at 9:13 PM on April 12, 2008

Yup, this has happened to me as well. This Wiki link offers an explanation.

Oddly, this does not happen to me after playing Rock Band.
posted by Diskeater at 9:14 PM on April 12, 2008

Oh and I'm not sure what Guitar Gyro is but it sounds sexy/tasty.
posted by Diskeater at 9:29 PM on April 12, 2008

I get that too from a 56-inch DLP screen. You're not going crazy and/or dying.
posted by Doctor Suarez at 9:31 PM on April 12, 2008

It reminds me of driving on an interstate for a long time. I think they call it velocitization. You get so used to something coming at you at a certain speed that it begins to seem normal, so you up your speed a bit. Next thing you know you look at your speedometer and you're going 90 without even knowing it.
posted by sanka at 9:47 PM on April 12, 2008

I imagine it's a similar effect to this.

You've been staring intently at an illuminated screen with a series of colored disks that are moving steadily away from you. When you pull your eyes away from the screen you get that strange effect because the sensors that detect that type of movement are fatigued from overuse.
posted by louche mustachio at 9:49 PM on April 12, 2008

Yeah, it happens to me, too. And I've always enjoyed these simple toys, which is basically the same thing.
posted by robcorr at 4:12 AM on April 13, 2008

Another example here: echalk.co.uk
posted by gregvr at 5:21 AM on April 13, 2008

I get this when I play Guitar Hero, but not when I play Rock Band - I think it's because the fret indicators in Rock Band are slightly translucent so there's always some kind of consistent image behind the moving parts.
posted by Gortuk at 5:43 AM on April 13, 2008

Diskeater got it-- just an ordinary motion aftereffect. It happens to me when watching scrolling movie credits.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:34 AM on April 13, 2008

I only have it for Wii - but I'm fairly certain that the "breathing" effect that you see in the menus is a feature to prevent screen burn-in.
posted by jeffmik at 8:04 AM on April 13, 2008

Yep, I get this too.
posted by phaded at 11:26 AM on April 13, 2008

Waterfall effect, definitely
posted by rlef98 at 9:58 PM on April 13, 2008

I've experienced this, and also get the same effect when riding the train in the seats that face backwards relative to the direction the train is traveling. When the train stops, my eyes will still try to see the scenery outside moving. That's disconcerting, whereas the Guitar Hero effect is kind of fun.
posted by owtytrof at 8:49 AM on April 14, 2008