i3D - Head coupled perspective

i3D is an iPhone and iPad app that demonstrates how a face tracking system can be used to create animated perspective views that adjust as you view the screen from different angles, creating a realistic illusion of 3D depth.

The system creates a monocular view, using the front facing camera of the phone or tablet for facetracking. It does not rely on the accelerometer or gyroscope. There is potential for the system to be developed in conjunction with stereoscopic technology to create more sophisticated interactive perspective images.

i3D has been developed by Jeremie Francone and Laurence Nigay at the Engineering Human-Computer Interaction (EHCI) Research Group of the Grenoble Infomatics Laboratory (LIG), University Joseph Fourier in Switzerland.

The app can be downloaded from the Apple App Store here.

Videos and further information about the project can be found on the EHCI website.

Fast/Slow

Fast/Slow was an installation by Rob Lee at Prism 11, which took place in Sheffield in March 2012.

"Rob Lee's wall paintings exploit the specificity of perspective. Cohesively viewed from only one location, elsewhere his words appear as distended and distorted shapes. Fast/Slow reacts to changing temporalities; as the world moves to a pace in which action, reaction and information seem to be processed almost instantly, the act of viewing these words requires work adjustment and articulation."

(description taken from the exhibition leaflet)

(photos © copyright Russell Light)

For more details see:

Rob Lee's website

Prism 11 page and Prism website

Illusions at Stockholm Station

Swedish photographer Erik Johansson has just posted videos showing his latest perspective illusions at Stockholm Central Station.

How to construct an Ames room

The Ames room was developed by Adelbert Ames Jr as part of his research into optics and perception during the 1930s and 40s. After an early career as a painter, Ames began to explore the relationship between visual art and the scientific study of vision. He studied opthalmology at Clark University, Massachusetts and became a professor of physiological optics, developing an interest optical illusions. As part of his research, he conducted a series of experiments that he called 'the distorted room demonstrations'.

When viewed from the correct position, an Ames room gives the illusion of a standard orthogonal room. It is actually a trapezoid shaped space, which means that people standing in different corners at the back of the room and who appear to be the same distance from the viewer, look as if they are completely different sizes. The optical illusion is so convincing that someone walking across the back of the room appears to increase or decrease in scale as they move from one side to the other.

An Ames room is constructed by plotting the visual rays from the chosen view point to the various points of the notional orthogonal room. Points in the Ames room can then be established on the same visual rays, either closer or further from the view point. The following example is quite a simple version of an Ames Room, where the floor and ceiling slope, but with walls that are still vertical. The dimensions of the wall on the right hand side have been reduced by exactly 50% compared to the left. The illusion can be developed further with sloping wall surfaces, whilst still maintaining the apparent appearance of an orthogonal space.

Plans, showing an orthogonal room on the left and the plan of an equivalent Ames room on the right (viewing position at bottom)

3D view showing the perceived orthogonal space

3D view showing the irregular space of the Ames room

Section through the Ames room showing visual rays

(images © copyright Russell Light)

A SketchUp model can be downloaded from the Google 3D Warehouse.


The principle of the Ames room is often used to create spatial illusions in films. Most recently, the effect has been used in the Lord of the Rings trilogy so that the hobbits would appear smaller than other taller characters.

Ames' original room also incorporated an anti-gravity illusion, that took advantage of the apparently flat floor that actually sloped. A ball would be appear to roll upwards along a grooved track that was positioned across the room.


Sources:

F Dubery & J Willats (1983) - 'Perspective and Other Drawing Systems', Herbert Press, London. Amazon link

R Gregory (1994) - 'Even Odder Perceptions', Routledge, Amazon link

2D/3D chairs at Issey Miyake

Yoichi Yamamoto's project for an Issey Miyake store in Tokyo mixes real chair backs with painted anamorphic images to create an illusionary window display on which garments can be placed. The project, which is called 2D/3D chairs, makes effective use of a small space and uses simple means to create a powerful illusionary perspective.

Yoichi Yamamoto describes the illusion and the intention behind it...

"If you look at the installation from one point in front of the shop window, the back of the chairs, which are three-dimensional objects, and the legs of the chairs, which are two-dimensional drawings, meet and create a single figure".

"We expressed Issey Miyake’s “from 2D cloth to 3D dress” philosophy in our installation".

Photo taken from the correct perspective viewpoint

A different view that reveals the illusion

Plan, showing painted 2D surface and viewpoint

Section, showing viewpoint and 3D chair backs

Diagram, indicating the perspective construction underlying the illusion

(all images copyright © Yoichi Yamamoto)


Other design ideas for the Issey Miyake store included anamorphic proposals for a 2D/3D city and 2D/3D vases.

Additional images of the project are featured in Dezeen and Designboom. Further work by Yoichi Yamamoto can be found on his website.

Perspective illusion and David Nash's steps

As part of his recent retrospective exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, David Nash created a site specific piece entitled 'Seventy One Steps', which forms part of the walking route between the two sides of the valley.

"The intervention consists of seventy one oak steps, carefully charred and oiled, which follow the lie of the land up the hill. The steps are embedded in thirty tons of coal, to create a useful artwork that will gradually erode as it is walked on.

The steps are an evolution of an abiding theme within Nash's sculpture that connects up and down, root and branch, and inspired by his primary interest in wood and trees."

(taken from the information board on site)

The width of the steps gradually decrease as they rise up the hillside, with those at the top being roughly half the width of those at the bottom. This creates an accelerated perspective effect, which makes the stair appear longer and more impressive as one begins the ascent. By contrast, when viewed from above the whole stair appears to be much narrower, shorter in length and more intimately scaled.

(photos copyright © Russell Light)


Perspectival staircases have a long history, with Bernini's 'Scala Regia' in the Vatican being perhaps the most famous example. More recently, the device was also used by Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates in their 1988-91 Sainsbury Wing extension to the National Gallery in London, which was appropriately designed to house Italian renaissance art.

Bernini - Scala Regia, Vatican, 1663-66


David Nash at YSP

The Brothers Quay and Anamorphosis

'Dormitorium: An Exhibition of Sets of Films by the Quay Brothers' is currently running at Liverpool's Victoria Gallery and Museum, from 25. March to 28. May 2011 (free admission).

Further details are available here.

In 1991, the Brothers Quay explored perspective drawing and the issues associated with perspectival distortion in a short film entitled 'Anamorphosis, or De Artificiali Perspectiva'. This beautifully filmed animation offers a excellent introduction to the secrets of anamorphosis. The film was made in collaboration with art historians, Sir Ernst Gombrich and Roger Cardinal.

"Anamorphosis is a minor chapter in the vast and complex history of how painters have constructed images of the world. The film seeks to illuminate an artistic technique which plays mischievously yet revealingly with the relationship between the eye and what it sees."

The full film can be viewed on YouTube in 2 parts (total 13 mins)

Part 1

Part 2


Additional links:

BBC images of Liverpool exhibition

Brothers Quay at Wikipedia