Ames Room Research Paper

Ames Room Just imagine looking through a peephole and seeing two contradictory images; one is gigantic and the other tiny. But how can that be if it’s the same room? The answer to this question is the Ames room. The Ames room is a deformed room used to create an optical illusion of relative sizes; the size of the person depended on where the person was standing. To understand the Ames room, people need to know the history behind it, how it works, and the psychology involved. To start things off, the design of the Ames room was made back in the 19th century by Hermann Helmholtz. According to Helmholtz, who was greatly acclaimed for his studies in perception, perspective cues were often more powerful than the ability to judge depth according to angles. Adelbert Ames, whom the room was named after, was the first person to actually construct the Ames room. While working on the room, Ames discovered that the laws of physics were also being broken and it did not just cause a wrong conception of size. This was showed by balls rolling up instead of down. These illusions were caused by the shape of the room, a trapezoid, and …show more content…
It all goes back to the way the Ames room is built. To an onlooker, the room looks like a normal cubic shape. However, the room is actually a trapezoid with slanted walls, ceiling and floor at an incline, and the right corner is closer to where the people look. The person then looks through a peephole, which helps remove any sense of depth perception. Many people add special features to make the optical illusion more believable. The room by itself gives no conflict, but the actual illusion happens when a person is inside the room. The person in the farthest corner looks smaller, while the person closest looks taller. Since people are expecting to see a cubic room and not a trapezoid, it causes the vision of seeing people in different sizes. Human experience affects the way they perceive