title. Ames Room

Ames Room

 

An Ames room is a distorted room used to create an optical illusion of relative sizes. Named for its creator, American ophthalmologist Adelbert Ames, Jr., the first Ames room was built in 1946, based on the late nineteenth century concept of German scientist Hermann von Helmholtz.

Upon viewing people or objects within an Ames room, there is a loss of normal perspective. As a result of the optical illusion created by the distorted room, a person standing in one corner appears to the observer to be significantly larger than a person standing in the opposite corner while the room appears to be a normal rectangular shape. This is taken to indicate the significant role past experience has on our interpretation of our perceived world.