The biggest application for optical illusions is in electronic platforms
like photography, videography, animation, and game design. The reason
these platforms are so popular is because designers are creating a world
2-dimension, but it needs to be an experience in 3-dimensions. Game design
is the most emphasized use of optical illusions by creating confusing
images to make levels harder. Zhang and Li (2017) go into the application
of optical illusions on game design with the game "Alice and Contradictory
Labyrinth". Through different ideas of illusions, the game gets a
sense of novelty, as Zhang and Li put it. It creates an interesting
atmosphere for game play; challenging the viewer with confusion on the
images before them. The image on the left shows use of Optical
illusions on the tiles create interesting effects when trying to enter
different pathways. The image on the right uses Optical illusions on disks
to create different layers of disks.
Another application of optical illusions is in fashion. Have you ever put on a
dress and to your surprise it makes you look skinner? Haughney (2016) talks
about a study published in Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, about how
different patterns make women perceive their bodies differently. The illusion
is the use of the dress and pattern to create an image that is different than
reality. The author noted that most had different interactions based on the
body type they had, but that the dress definitely and its pattern yielded a
difference on how women perceive themselves.
Optical illusions also have helped psychologists understand schizophrenia better.
Notredame (2014) talks in their article about how optical illusions use
visual perception in schizophrenia from a psychophysical, neurophysiological
and functional point of view, to explain what patients with schizophrenia are
perceiving. The research was found that many visual illusions have no effect on
schizophrenia patients, that is they don't see the illusion presented. One
Optical Illusions that schizophrenia patients don't actually see is the rotating
mask illusion. Implications of this research can lead to better treatment of schizophrenia,
and it deepens the understanding on how the disorder works.
