[en] Within an Ames room, the perceived size of objects, such as people, changes dynamically when the objects move about within the room. The shape of the Ames room is not actually rectangular but it is perceived to be rectangular. Unfortunately, the geometrical properties of the Ames room have often been misunderstood, and rooms that have different shapes are also referred to as “Ames rooms” in many articles. In this study, the geometrical properties of the original Ames rooms constructed by Adelbert Ames, Jr. were analyzed and the generalization of the Ames room was discussed. We found that these original Ames rooms are 3D-to-3D perspective transformations of rectangular illusory rooms. Based on this analysis, we also developed a computational model that can construct a generalized Ames room that has a hexahedral shape with some free parameters that quantitatively control (i) the size and aspect-ratio of a rectangular illusory room, (ii) the amount of distortion of the Ames room from a rectangular room, and (iii) the viewpoint of an observer. This model was implemented as a computational program so that an Ames room can be constructed in a VR space. Note that the transformations of the Ames rooms can be applied to an arbitrary 3D scene and that they can be regarded as members of a subset of 3D-to-3D perspective transformations. Any perspective transformation in this subset distorts the 3D scene in such a way that the retinal image of the distorted scene, when seen from a specific viewpoint, is identical to the retinal image of the initial scene, when seen from a specific viewpoint. These generalizations allow us to control the conditions of an Ames room systematically with more flexibility when we study this illusion.
Disciplines :
Theoretical & cognitive psychology
Author, co-author :
Myrov, Vladislav; Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
Gorina, Elena; School of Psychology, HSE University, Russian Federation
Vodorezova, Kristina; School of Psychology, HSE University, Russian Federation
Dvoeglazova, Maria; School of Psychology, HSE University, Russian Federation
KOSHMANOVA, Ekaterina ; Département de gestion des systèmes d'informations (GSI) > Secteur Appui méthodologique aux Projets GSI et Planif (APP)
Gorbunova, Elena S.; School of Psychology, HSE University, Russian Federation
Sawada, Tadamasa ; School of Psychology, HSE University, Russian Federation ; Akian College of Science and Engineering, American University of Armenia, Armenia ; Department of Psychology, Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University, Armenia ; European University of Armenia, Armenia
Language :
English
Title :
Understanding the geometrical properties of an Ames room and controlling it systematically and quantitatively
HSE - National Research University Higher School of Economics
Funding text :
This article is an output of a research project implemented as part of the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University) in 2024.
Behrens, R.R., The Life and Unusual Ideas of Adelbert Ames. Jr. Leonardo 20:3 (1987), 273–279, 10.2307/1578173.
Brecher, K., Puno, R., Project LITE: Ames room demonstration. 2010, Boston University https://www.bu.edu/lite/inkjet-science/index.html.
Cowan, T.M., The theory of braids and the analysis of impossible figures. Journal of Mathematical Psychology 11:3 (1974), 190–212, 10.1016/0022-2496(74)90018-2.
Cowan, T.M., Organizing the properties of impossible figures. Perception 6:1 (1977), 41–56, 10.1068/p060041.
Cowan, T.M., Supplementary report: Braids, side segments, and impossible figures. Journal of Mathematical Psychology. Journal of Mathematical Psychology 16:3 (1977), 254–260, 10.1016/0022-2496(77)90055-4.
Cowan, T.M., Turning a Penrose triangle inside out. Journal of Mathematical Psychology 26:3 (1982), 252–262, 10.1016/0022-2496(82)90004-9.
Day, R.H., The Ames room from another viewpoint. Perception 22:9 (1993), 1007–1011, 10.1068/p221007.
Dorward, F.M.C., Day, R.H., Loss of 3-D shape constancy in interior spaces: The basis of the Ames-room illusion. Perception 26:6 (1997), 707–718, 10.1068/p260707.
Dvoeglazova, M., Koshmanova, E., Sawada, T., Visual sensitivity to parallel configurations of contours compared with sensitivity to other configurations. Vision Research 188 (2021), 149–161, 10.1016/j.visres.2021.07.006.
Dvoeglazova, M., Sawada, T., A role of rectangularity in perceiving a 3D shape of an object. Vision Research, 221, 2024, 10.1016/j.visres.2024.108433 Article 102841.
Gehringer, W.L., Engel, E., Effect of ecological viewing conditions on the Ames' distorted room illusion. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 12:2 (1986), 181–185, 10.1037/0096-1523.12.2.181.
Gibson, J.J., The ecological approach to visual perception. 1979, Psychology Press, New York, NY.
Gogel, W.C., Mershon, D.H., The perception of size in a distorted room. Perception & Psychophysics 4:1 (1968), 26–28, 10.3758/BF03210442.
Ittelson, W.H., The ames demonstrations in perception: A guide to their construction and use. 1952, Princeton University Press.
Ittelson, W.H., Visual space perception. 1960, Springer.
Ittelson, W.H., Ames, A. Jr., The ames demonstrations in perception - together with an interpretative manual – with a new introduction. 1968, Hafner Publishing Company.
JoVE Science Education Database. Sensation and perception: The ames room. 2023, JoVE https://app.jove.com/v/10292/the-ames-room.
Koshmanova, E., Dvoeglazova, M., Myrov, V., Gorina, E., Vodorezova, K., Gorbunova, E., et al. The Ames room and the misunderstood versions and depictions. Perception, 2024, 10.1177/03010066241272260.
Kwon, T., Li, Y., Sawada, T., Pizlo, Z., Gestalt-like constraints produce veridical (Euclidean) percepts of 3D indoor scenes. Vision Research 126 (2016), 264–277, 10.1016/j.visres.2015.09.011.
Li, Y., Sawada, T., Latecki, L.M., Steinman, R.M., Pizlo, Z., A tutorial explaining a machine vision model that emulates human performance when it recovers natural 3D scenes from 2D images. Journal of Mathematical Psychology 56:4 (2012), 217–231, 10.1016/j.jmp.2012.07.001.
Meng, J.C., Sedgwick, H.A., Distance perception mediated through nested contact relations among surfaces. Perception & Psychophysics 63:1 (2001), 1–15, 10.3758/bf03200497.
Minkov, V., Sawada, T., Theoretical treatment of limitations inherent in simple 3D stimuli: Triangles and the P3P problem. Vision, 5(1), 2021, 10, 10.3390/vision5010010.
Mischenko, E., Negishi, I., Gorbunova, E.S., Sawada, T., Examining the role of familiarity in the perception of depth. Vision, 4(2), 2020, 10.3390/vision4020021 Article 21.
Niall, K.K., Projective invariance and the kinetic depth effect. Acta Psychologica 81:2 (1992), 127–168, 10.1016/0001-6918(92)90003-V.
Niall, K.K., Estimates of shape by eye, or, The little invariant that could. Acta Psychologica 100:3 (1999), 291–320, 10.1016/S0001-6918(98)00042-0.
Ooi, T.L., He, Z.J., A distance judgment function based on space perception mechanisms: Revisiting Gilinsky's (1951) equation. Psychological Review 114:2 (2007), 441–454, 10.1037/0033-295X.114.2.441.
Papathomas, T.V., Hughes, P., Hughes's reverspectives: Radical uses of linear perspective on non-coplanar surfaces. Vision, 3(4), 2019, 63, 10.3390/vision3040063.
Pilewski, J.L., Martin, B.A., Effects of monocular versus binocular viewing in the Ames Distorted-Room illusion. Perceptual and motor skills, 72(1), 1991, 10.2466/pms.1991.72.1.306 306–306.
Pizlo, Z., Salach-Golyska, M., Is vision metric? Comment on Lappin and Love. Perception and Psychophysics 55 (1994), 230–234, 10.3758/bf03211670.
Pizlo, Z., Li, Y., Sawada, T., Steinman, R.M., Making a machine that sees like us. 2014, Oxford University Press, 10.1093/ACPROF:OSO/9780199922543.001.0001.
Rogers, B., When is an illusion not an illusion? An alternative view of the illusion concept. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 17, 2022, 10.3389/fnhum.2022.957740 Article 957740.
Rudrauf, D., Bennequin, D., Williford, K., The moon illusion explained by the projective consciousness model. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 507, 2020, 110455, 10.1016/j.jtbi.2020.110455.
Runeson, S., The distorted room illusion, equivalent configurations, and the specificity of static optic arrays. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 14:2 (1988), 295–304, 10.1037/0096-1523.14.2.295.
Sawada, T., Dvoeglazova, M., Commentary: Rectangularity is stronger than symmetry in interpreting 2D pictures as 3D objects. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 17, 2023, 10.3389/fnhum.2023.1138287 Article 1138287.
Sawada, T., Farshchi, M., Visual detection of 3D mirror-symmetry and 3D rotational-symmetry. Visual Cognition 30:8 (2022), 546–563, 10.1080/13506285.2022.2139314.
Sawada, T., Li, Y., Pizlo, Z., Any pair of 2D curves is consistent with a 3D symmetric interpretation. Symmetry 3:2 (2011), 365–388, 10.3390/sym3020365.
Sawada, T., Li, Y., Pizlo, Z., Detecting 3-D mirror symmetry in a 2-D camera image for 3-D shape recovery. Proceedings of the IEEE 102:10 (2014), 1588–1606, 10.1109/JPROC.2014.2344001.
Sawada, T., Li, Y., Pizlo, Z., Shape perception. Busemeyer, J., Townsend, J., Wang, Z.J., Eidels, A., (eds.) Oxford handbook of computational and mathematical psychology, 2015, Oxford University Press, 255–276.
Sawada, T., Pizlo, Z., Testing a formal theory of perception is not easy: Comments on Yu, Todd & Petrov (2021) and Yu, Petrov & Todd (2021). Journal of Vision 22:4 (2022), 1–4, 10.1167/jov.22.4.15 15.
Sawada, T., Volk, D., An accidental image feature that appears but not disappears. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 119, 2024, 10.1016/j.jmp.2024.102841 Article 102841.
Sedgwick, H.A., J. J. Gibson's “ground theory of space perception”. i-Perception, 12(3), 2021, 10.1177/2041669521102111 Article 20416695211021111.
Stewart, V.M., A cross-cultural test of the “carpentered world” hypothesis using the Ames distorted room illusion. International Journal of Psychology 9:2 (1974), 79–89, 10.1080/00207597408247094.
Sugihara, K., Machine interpretation of line drawings. 1986, MIT Press.
Sugihara, K., Three-dimensional realization of anomalous pictures—An application of picture interpretation theory to toy design. Pattern Recognition 30:7 (1997), 1061–1067, 10.1016/S0031-3203(96)00138-0.
Sugihara, K., A characterization of a class of anomalous solids. Interdisciplinary Information Sciences 11:2 (2005), 149–156, 10.4036/iis.2005.149.
Sugihara, K., Design of solids for antigravity motion illusion. Computational Geometry 47:6 (2014), 675–682, 10.1016/j.comgeo.2013.12.007.
Sugihara, K., Right-angle preference in impossible objects and impossible motions. Proceedings of Bridges 2014: Mathematics, Music, Art, Architecture, Culture, 2014, Tessellations Publishing, 449–452.
Tyler, C.W., The nature of illusions: A new synthesis based on verifiability. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 16, 2022, 10.3389/fnhum.2022.875829 Article 875829.
Wang, S., Sanches de Oliveira, G., Djebbara, Z., Gramann, K., The embodiment of architectural experience: A methodological perspective on neuro-architecture. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 16, 2022, 10.3389/fnhum.2022.833528 Article 833528.
Wickelgren, I., Instant egghead - what is the Ames illusion?. Scientific American, 2012 https://www.scientificamerican.com/video/instant-egghead-what-is-the-ames2012-10-09/.
Williford, K., Bennequin, D., Rudrauf, D., Pre-reflective self-consciousness & projective geometry. Review of Philosophy and Psychology 13:2 (2022), 365–396, 10.1007/s13164-022-00638-w.
