Here's The iPhone Carpet Illusion Driving Everyone Crazy (And How To Find The Phone)

The latest thing driving everyone crazy online, somewhat improbably, involves an iPhone and a carpet. It's an optical illusion that's been shared all over Facebook and left people staring blankly at their computer screens.

A Facebook user named Jeya May Cruz, apparently in the Philippines, seemed to have started this all when she posted a photo. An innocuous enough start. "Let's play a game," she wrote. "Look for the cellphone."

The photo is simply of a carpet, a table and, at first glance, nothing else. But somewhere in the picture lies what appears to be an iPhone, and for many people it's nearly impossible to spot. As of this writing, the illusion is so compelling that the post has been shared more than 20,000 times.

Your intrepid writer stared at the picture for 25 minutes and grew frustrated after not being able to spot the cellphone, swearing the photo was a prank — that there was, in fact, no phone in the picture — and it was a Facebook post designed to make a fool of the reader. But after cheating and reading through Facebook comments, your writer found the phone, and once you find it, it's impossible to not see it.

Here's the picture:

Do you see it? No? Keep looking, zoom in, even. (Promise: there is a phone in the picture).

If you give up and need a hand, here are some helpful hints for finding the iPhone. (WARNING: if you're looking still, there are big spoilers below)

First, scan slowly and look for a spot where the pattern in the carpet doesn't match.

Still haven't found it? The phone is in a case that closely resembles the carpet pattern, but the camera is visible — look for that.

Still no luck? Look in the upper right hand corner, along the inner blue stripe of carpet.

Still haven't found it? Here's a screenshot that will hopefully clear things up:

A hat-tip to Gizmodo for dissecting the illusion Thursday, and of course, to the apparent designer of the illusion herself, Jeya May Cruz.