The Ames Room Illusion

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When I read the textbook about the Ames Room Illusion, it was first time to realize my favorite movie The Lord of the Ring used this trick to represent the Hobbits, the miniature people. The depiction of Hobbits did not seem any strangeness at all. As you can see in the video, the Ames Room shows such a surprising illusion. However, I think many of us have experienced to take or look at a photo with a big figure behind people, and they look in same sizes like the example photo.
The Ames Room illusion demonstrates the two same size figures in different sizes due to each position of viewing point and the two figures. The different heights of ceilings are a key point that deceives our eyes skillfully. Thus, it shows that the giant person and small person are standing in a normal room. By using this technique, the two different sizes figures can be shown in same sizes as the example picture. If you look at people walking next to the clock, you will notice how big it is actually. But the man is acting like he can hold it with one arm.
The Ames Room illusion is used to create a lot of amusing pictures. It tricks our eyes cleverly that we look at giant and small people in real. If we understood this technique, we can take creative photos by ourselves.

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Video (Sorry, I did not know how to attach it so I leave the URL here): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chxCNEsu3YU

11 Comments

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The movie seems interesting.
Yeah, when I first saw a picture about the Ames Room Illusion, I can't believe my eyes! It is amazing!
I found it really interesting to know how to do that successfully. After I know the secret, the only words came up to my mind is that even we can't believe ourself! :)

I agree the Ames room is a fun illusion that we sometimes use without realizing it to make goofy pictures or mess with people. Thanks for sharing this movie-it seems like an inspiring story of a hard working woman.

I agree that the ames room illusion is very interesting and it's cool that we sometimes use it to make goofy picture without our knowing. Thanks for sharing this movie! It looks like an inspiring movie about psychology and it is a great way to get excited about the topics we're learning about.

This was a great video that demonstrated the Ames room illusion well. I didn't realize they used it in the Lord of the Rings either.

The Ames Room illusion, among others, is a great depiction as to how our mind is wired based on varying degrees of stimuli. Your video and example of LOTR accurately represent this illusion, parallel to the Necker Cube in regards to our brains seeing two different options int he image instead of one.

This is a very interesting concept. I never really realized how much it was used in movies, and I just never payed that much attention.

That demonstration of the illusion was great. It helped me really visualize what you were saying and made me wonder how many other ways we can be decieved by our eyes and our brains without even knowing it.

It's amazing how the little "flaws" in or ocular cues can be used by filmmakers to portray characters and sceneries to us in a way that tricks our senses. Before, filmmakers often relied on just making furniture larger than life, or smaller than life to change of the size of a person, but the ames illusion is another great alternative that allows us to perceive different sizes of people within the same room. Thank you for the clear explanation to this illusion.

That was a really great video as well--I hope to see the whole movie at some point. If anyone is interested in austism or Asperger's this would be a really great film (Temple Grandin)!

That is pretty awesome that they use that in major films. It shows psychology is used almost everywhere. I find illusions to be interesting but sometimes they freak me out. The Ames illusion is pretty self explanatory but the illusion where stuff is spinning just weirds me out. Good job though!!

Cool video! It's awesome that they used it in LOTR. I wonder what other psychology tricks Hollywood uses in films.

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This page contains a single entry by inou0030 published on February 16, 2012 7:52 PM.

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