4 ms·

Very similar to last year's post on the hallucination-inducing 15 Hz red/black 'Ganzflicker', https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27669211 https://news.ycombin

by mgdlbp 4y ago

Very similar to last year's post on the hallucination-inducing 15 Hz red/black 'Ganzflicker', https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27669211 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27669211 Direct link to fullscreen flicker: (warning) kerblooee.github.io/ganzflicker

jamal-kumar 4y ago
Yeah, there's serious study on this. Like, my dad did the Ganzfeld experiment back in the 80s with the ping pong balls over the eyes with red LED's in them... There's even serious scientific study on it [1] looking into the differences of the effect between people with mental imagery vs aphantasia. Here's another study which looks at fMRI scans of people with the goggles on [2]. This Vice commercial-for-an-app-as-an-article doesn't even touch on any of that, which is pretty weak even by the journalistic standards of this publication. I'm sure I've seen older Vice articles that weren't just an ad for an app which delved into this more seriously. I've tried both white and red light myself and found the red light you linked to be a LOT more evocative. [1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34172274/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34172274/ [2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75019-3 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75019-3
- mgdlbp 4y ago
  Tbf OP does link to research of its own[3] by a team with "a relationship" to the app. [1] is actually what last year's submission is based on. Following the references, there's quite a number of papers on flicker-induced entoptic phenomena. [3] https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/511766v1.full https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/511766v1.full
  - jamal-kumar 4y ago
    Thanks for pointing that out. It's really cool, have you tried it before? I seemed to get imagery of animal-like faces, like morphing between intricate and defined portraits of owls and wolves from what I recall, like what you might see on one of those tshirts. It seems like it might be great for coming up with interesting illustrations, or other creative process stuff as mentioned in the article (I'll give it credit at least for mentioning Margaret Atwood and her liking it as a tool for these reasons as I'm a big fan of her work)
davesque 4y ago
What am I supposed to be seeing in that flicker effect? Doesn't do anything for me.
- technothrasher 4y ago
  I don't know what you're supposed to see, but the first thing it did to me was make the whole room go dark, then saw some geometric patterns, followed by the silhouette of a man with light exploding out from his limbs, and finally saw a long tunnel heading away into the distance. Funky.
  - davesque 4y ago
    Lol, you had me there NGL.
    - technothrasher 4y ago
      I swear, that's what I saw. It wasn't really hardcore like I was actually tripping, but more like trying to interpret a Rorschach inkblot. I just tried it again. Same darkening of my vision, but this time I saw the tunnel first, then a crucifix, and then Conway's Game of Life like patterns.
- bgroat 4y ago
  It gives me the sensation of hurtling/spinning through a tunnel surrounded by teeth
- msk-lywenn 4y ago
  I see that vertical sync still isn't working in my browser
yojo 4y ago
I made a slightly more tunable one after being disappointed with the "official" flicker. I saw more visuals speeding it up closer to 10hz, but still just basic geometric shapes. https://igmcdowell.github.io/ganzfeld/ https://igmcdowell.github.io/ganzfeld/ Note: You can hit backtick (`) to make the controls appear/disappear.

by mgdlbp 4y ago

jamal-kumar 4y ago

Yeah, there's serious study on this. Like, my dad did the Ganzfeld experiment back in the 80s with the ping pong balls over the eyes with red LED's in them... There's even serious scientific study on it [1] looking into the differences of the effect between people with mental imagery vs aphantasia. Here's another study which looks at fMRI scans of people with the goggles on [2]. This Vice commercial-for-an-app-as-an-article doesn't even touch on any of that, which is pretty weak even by the journalistic standards of this publication. I'm sure I've seen older Vice articles that weren't just an ad for an app which delved into this more seriously. I've tried both white and red light myself and found the red light you linked to be a LOT more evocative. [1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34172274/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34172274/ [2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75019-3 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75019-3

mgdlbp 4y ago
Tbf OP does link to research of its own[3] by a team with "a relationship" to the app. [1] is actually what last year's submission is based on. Following the references, there's quite a number of papers on flicker-induced entoptic phenomena. [3] https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/511766v1.full https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/511766v1.full
- jamal-kumar 4y ago
  Thanks for pointing that out. It's really cool, have you tried it before? I seemed to get imagery of animal-like faces, like morphing between intricate and defined portraits of owls and wolves from what I recall, like what you might see on one of those tshirts. It seems like it might be great for coming up with interesting illustrations, or other creative process stuff as mentioned in the article (I'll give it credit at least for mentioning Margaret Atwood and her liking it as a tool for these reasons as I'm a big fan of her work)

davesque 4y ago

What am I supposed to be seeing in that flicker effect? Doesn't do anything for me.

technothrasher 4y ago
I don't know what you're supposed to see, but the first thing it did to me was make the whole room go dark, then saw some geometric patterns, followed by the silhouette of a man with light exploding out from his limbs, and finally saw a long tunnel heading away into the distance. Funky.
- davesque 4y ago
  Lol, you had me there NGL.
  - technothrasher 4y ago
    I swear, that's what I saw. It wasn't really hardcore like I was actually tripping, but more like trying to interpret a Rorschach inkblot. I just tried it again. Same darkening of my vision, but this time I saw the tunnel first, then a crucifix, and then Conway's Game of Life like patterns.
bgroat 4y ago
It gives me the sensation of hurtling/spinning through a tunnel surrounded by teeth
msk-lywenn 4y ago
I see that vertical sync still isn't working in my browser

yojo 4y ago

I made a slightly more tunable one after being disappointed with the "official" flicker. I saw more visuals speeding it up closer to 10hz, but still just basic geometric shapes. https://igmcdowell.github.io/ganzfeld/ https://igmcdowell.github.io/ganzfeld/ Note: You can hit backtick (`) to make the controls appear/disappear.