Perplexing 3D Schröder Staircase Optical Illusion Earned Best Illusion Of The Year 2020 Award
Our minds just love playing tricks on us.
Optical illusions can be strangely addictive, especially when they make your brain argue with your eyes. The 2020 Best Illusion of the Year Contest delivered exactly that kind of puzzle, with a 3D version of Schröder’s staircase taking the top prize.
The contest, organized by the Neural Correlate Society, highlights illusions that are clever, surprising, and built to test how people perceive the world. This year’s winners included a staircase that flips without changing, a fake mirror trick, and a few other images that kept viewers guessing.
The staircase is the one everyone keeps coming back to, and the rest of the winners are just as hard to pin down.
Schröder’s stairs
Kokichi Sugihara / Best Illusion of the Year ContestIt’s not just for fun; the main goal is to understand sensory perception and various ophthalmic and neurological illnesses.
This year’s winners were recently revealed, with this 3D interpretation of Schröder’s stairs winning first prize. Initially created as a 2D image by the famous German natural scientist Heinrich G. F. Schröder, this illusion looks completely the same when turned upside down.
The legendary 2D illusion looks the same despite flipping it upside down, and now it has become 3D
Kokichi Sugihara / Best Illusion of the Year Contest
Kokichi Sugihara / Best Illusion of the Year Contest
The 3D model used in this illusion was designed by Kokichi Sugihara of Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan. The description states that this is one of those illustrations that has two interpretations, whether it’s 2D or 3D. It remains a staircase viewed from above, even when rotated 180 degrees. People were amazed by this image.
Here’s a detailed video of the 3D Schröder’s stairs illusion
Matt Pritchard from the UK won second place with his Coca-Cola can and mirror optical illusion
Kokichi Sugihara / Best Illusion of the Year Contest
The contest has three stages: submission, selection of the Top 10 finalists, and finally, the election of the Top 3 winners. A group of judges narrows down all of the proposals to create a top 10 list of the best ones and selects three grand winners who will also receive cash prizes.
Other prizes were awarded to an illusion featuring a couple of Coca-Cola cans and a fake mirror, as well as a set of distorted 2.5D grid forms.
The illusion with the cans was created by Matt Pritchard from the UK. It features a mirror frame adjacent to a wall that, when moved, reveals a Coke can. However, there is no mirror present, and the structure is entirely see-through. There’s a hole in the wall with a matching can.
It looks like the mirror is reflecting the can, but it’s a hole in the “wall” and a frame without a mirror.
Matt Pritchard / Best Illusion of the Year Contest
Matt Pritchard / Best Illusion of the Year Contest
Daniël Maarleveld from the Netherlands got third place for her set of 2.5D grid shapes
Daniël Maarleveld / Best Illusion of the Year Contest
Daniël Maarleveld from the Netherlands won third place with her video of moving 2.5D shapes presented as a bending grid.
Daniël has been posting letter simulations on her Instagram account for a while, revealing what she calls “illogical logic”: “With every scripted letter animation I made, I discovered a new principle within this illusion. I later scripted these animations with the help of Jonathan Puckey, co-founder of the code platform paper.js.”
This feels like the visual anomalies that turn logic into mud, one impossible perception at a time.
Daniël Maarleveld / Best Illusion of the Year Contest
“At the moment, I am finalizing a script to generate entire animated impossible typefaces so that I can create the whole alphabet. However, the letters I selected best demonstrate the different illusions. For instance, they show that the letters bend in an illogical way-allowing you to see the top of the shape and the bottom simultaneously.
The only element that I think could be clearer is the fact that the letters switch from hollow to convex halfway through. I created an ampersand animation that illustrates this better, but I chose to showcase only one type of impossible typeface for consistency.”
Daniël Maarleveld / Best Illusion of the Year Contest
Creating these using scripts requires a significant amount of time and patience.
Daniël Maarleveld / Best Illusion of the Year Contest
“I didn’t know Kokichi Sugihara’s work at first, but I love it. He has been inventing optical illusions since before I was born and has now created a ninth generation of his illusions. I already consider it a great honor to be in the top 3 alongside him. Sugihara has created several illusions where the back reflection of the shape looks different from the front, and the Schröder’s stairs are particularly interesting because the front and back shapes appear to be the same.”
Watch the video:
Students from the University of California also presented their flashing ladybug illusion
Mark Wexler, Patrick Cavanagh, and Stuart Anstis / Best Illusion of the Year Contest
A submission by Mark Wexler, Patrick Cavanagh, and Stuart Anstis also made it to the top 10. In it, insects flash while positioned in opposite corners of a moving frame. However, when the structure disappears, it appears as though the insects are aligned in a single line.
The insects are also presented in a circular pattern, and depending on the frame’s movement, it looks like they are moving in circles, but in reality, they are in a single line.
Mark Wexler, Patrick Cavanagh, and Stuart Anstis / Best Illusion of the Year
Watch the video:
This illusion shows an image on the left that appears to have “sun rays” that are, in reality, levied in the right image for reference
Michael Karlovich and Pascal Wallisch / Best Illusion of the Year Contest
This sunray illusion by Michael Karlovich and Pascal Wallisch features intersecting ring-like shapes, and most people perceive weak rays emanating from the center. However, this shine is illusory, and the rays are not actually present.
The perception is even stronger when there are more intersections and the shapes are better aligned, which causes the brain to link the dots. This is an example of how our brains interpret information in a way that is easiest for them.
Michael Karlovich and Pascal Wallisch / Best Illusion of the Year Contest
Watch the video:
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