Colorpool

Colorpool is a simulation playground which generates whirls of color and gives you a variety of ways to influence and enhance the simulation. You can:

- use several touch effects, such as drawing colorful lines and spirals or creating a zoom fractal

- mix in video from your camera to create a trippy filter (see the middle menu button)

- rotate your device to make the whirls fall over each other

- choose from a variety of color themes and aftereffects

- pause the simulation to combine several effects at once

- save a screenshot to your device

Colorpool is completely free with no ads! It runs smoothly on both tablets and phones, but each pixel contributes to the simulation so larger screen sizes generally produce more dynamic effects. Colorpool is modeled after the Belousov–Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction and uses an algorithm supposedly based on the work of Nitori Kawashiro, but I couldn't find a definitive source.

WARNING: This app can produce flashing lights and color patterns which may not be suitable for people with photosensitive epilepsy.

Try staring at one whirl as the simulation runs normally for a while, then pause it and move your eyes across the screen. You'll see an optical illusion as your brain expects the whirls in your periphery to keep spinning.

Shameless tags: color pool spiral swirl whirl coil helix pinwheel colorful belusov BZ reaction visuals visualizer visualization video game games fluid dynamics mechanics liquid paint draw trippy psychedelic fractal fractals self-organization self-organizing chaos chaotic cyclic cellular automata automaton game of life mandala computational therapy optical illusion kaleidoscope art hypnosis