Sorry, Hendrik, I was not aware of your contribution. When I started with mine, I analysed the attached video (marioReversePhi.mp4) that inspired me. I also noticed the flashing colours and even tested alternative sequences other than te one used:

colors = 
  VideoMapList[
   Last@DominantColors[#Image, 2, {"Color", "Coverage"}] &, v];
repeatedColors = 
 RotateLeft[
  FindRepeat[colors[[All, 1]], 
   SameTest -> (Abs[#1[[1]] - #2[[1]]] < .05 &)], 0]

But I realised that neither the flashing nor the composition of the sequence was the main driver of this illusion. I converted the Mario video to grayscale and the illusion of motion was similar:

VideoFrameMap[ColorConvert[#, "Grayscale"] &, v]

I think that the flashing and coloring may help but the main contribution to the illusion is the edge effect which I tried to explain above. I am working further on this while trying to answer Sander Huisman about his previous suggestion. I will be back on this very interesting visual effect!

Attachments:

marioReversePhi.mp4

Fantastic! Thanks for sharing! Perhaps this could be implemented in some Wolfram function repository function? Have you thought about this?

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