The Forum Administrator's Optical Illusion

[Brown]

I have noticed something unusual about hal bidlack's current avatar, which features a six-pointed sheriff's star.

When I scroll up or down, the star appears to pulsate. In particular, the star appears to shrink slightly when in motion, but it pops back out to full size when the star is stationary.

Although some folks have animated avatars, I do not believe this is one of them. Rather, I think the pulsing is an optical illusion.

I am not sure whether the pulsing is really caused by the avatar or by quirks associated with the particular display coupled to my computer. Does anyone else observe the same effect?

 

[JSFolk]

I just tried scrolling with both my mouse wheel and by dragging the bar, and noticed no such effect.

I hear that such a thing is typical of the early asymptomatic stages of Ebola, though.

 

[Ladewig]

I do not observe the effect you describe.

 

[LuxFerum]

I just tried with different speed and looking at different spots and I didn't see anything unusual.

 

[arcticpenguin]

I'm guessing you have an older, slower graphics card in your PC.

 

[Keneke]

Yes, I agree with AP. Your screen resolution is higher than your card can accomodate, resulting in varying thicknesses of lines as you go down the screen. The result is that small letters (such as a small font in a WP program) have varying thicknesses. Also, lower-res images with distinct lines will shift about or wiggle when moving on screen.

 

[Brown]

Thanks to all who responded.

I had suspected that the effect might be caused by my display. I just got a brand new flat-screen display and I'm still not used to it yet. Sometimes, scrolling causes things to shimmer, but I had never observed the pulsating effect until I saw the avatar in question.