Ames room

An Ames room is a room whose walls and textures are distorted to produce a variety of optical illusions. Based on considerations of Hermann von Helmholtz, the Ames room 1946 by the American eye doctor and psychologist Adelbert Ames ( 1880-1955 ) was developed.

From a certain predetermined point of view acts Ames room like an ordinary room, in which the walls to each other and to the floor and ceiling are at right angles. In fact, the space is still distorted trapezoidal. Even if the viewer him opposite wall appear parallel, one of the two vertices is farther away than the other. Imagine now two equal people in these corners, appears the more distant smaller than the other. If you move in the Ames room from the back to closer to the viewer situated corner, so this one has the impression that one is growing, while moving parallel to its optic axis.

It should be noted that the viewer is allowed to see through the peephole with only one eye ( monocular viewing ). In the one-eyed vision of the observer uses his experience (with respect to the plan of rooms: perpendicular ) to open up the depth information from the optical environment.