Pain Inducing Patterns (fwd)

[Ron Blue]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 1 Nov 1995 16:00:53 -0500
From: Bob Babcock <peprbv at cfa0.harvard.edu>
To: x011 at lehigh.edu
Subject: Re: Pain Inducing Patterns

> Using your favorite paint program, start with a black background, and draw 
> a circle that almost fills the screen, preferably in at least a medium 
> resolution (640 x 480). Now fill the circle with alternating horizontal 
> bars of black and white, approximately 20 of each, and remove any 
> remaining outline of the circle. This was the simplest of a number of 
> examples shown in one of the neurology journals - I don't have the 
> specific reference but it might be in Pickover's book.
>    It sounds like you won't be impressed, but if this image triggered a 
> migraine or seizure, your mind might be opened. Perhaps "pain" isn't 
> quite the right word, but the context isn't exactly social angst either.

I made a postscript file to these specs using GLE and viewed it with
Ghostscript.  The image seems quite innocuous.  My office mate agreed,
describing it as "the belly of a zebra viewed through a tube".  I converted
the image to a GIF file which can be viewed using the URL
    http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~peprbv/pain.html