Its creator, Kokichi Sugihara, received second place at the annual Illusion of the Year contest for his offering, whereby a set of plastic squares appear to be circular when placed in front of a mirror.
The video of the illusion was posted on Reddit and quickly got the attention of readers who were left bemused by its mind-bending optics.
An illusion trick created using 'ambigiuous cylinders' has been blowing the internet's collective mind - until now.
Its creator Kokichi Sugihara only received second place in the annual Illusion of the Year contest for his design whereby a set of plastic squares appear to be circular when placed in front of a mirror
One commented: 'Was literally just going "AhhhhhAHHHHHHH!!" louder and louder till my boss told me to keep it down...'
While one said: 'I just kept saying "what the f***?" over and over, getting progressively louder'
And another wrote: 'Sometimes I really hate that our minds are so easily f***ed with. Really makes you question the validity of our senses and perceptions.'
The video, which is a minute long, shows six plastic squares fused together that, when placed in front of a mirror, appear to be shaped like circles.
Then, the squares are rotated and appear to be shaped like circles, while the reflection flips and becomes square.
Another set is then introduced, this time with four squares, which in the mirror appear to be interlocked circles.
CREATOR KOKICHI SUGIHARA EXPLAINS THE THEORY BEHIND THE ILLUSION
Creator Kokichi Sugihara (pictured)
Creator Kokichi Sugihara (pictured)
'The direct views of the objects and their mirror images generate quite different interpretations of the 3D shapes.
'They look like vertical cylinders, but their sections appear to be different; in one view they appear to be rectangles, while in the other view they appear to be circles.
'We cannot correct our interpretations although we logically know that they come from the same objects.
'Even if the object is rotated in front of a viewer, it is difficult to understand the true shape of the object, and thus the illusion does not disappear.'
Source: Illusion of the Year
Gradually, more and more 3D shapes are brought in, which all illustrate the same mind-bending illusion.
But within hours of the video going live, Devon, from 3D printing company Make Anything, came to the rescue to reveal the magic behind the mystery.
He 'reverse engineered' the illusion and created the model using a 3D printer.
Devon takes the model away from the mirror to reveal that one side is shaped like a square, while the other is shaped like a circle.
He explains that the 'true shape' is an exact blend between a circle and a square. He also reveals that one side is curved upwards, while the other side is sloped downwards.
The different heights of the sides 'corrects' the fact that the sides are different shapes, which means that it blends back into a square or back into a circle when the true shape is right in between, explains Devon.
Optical Express have recently done a study looking into human interpretation through colour illusions, to show how our visual interpretations of the world around us can differ quite sharply, even on a very basic level. By asking just one straight forward question we divided the nation on their answers ? is the colour blue or green? The full release can be seen below ? if you have any questions or would like the hi-res images to accompany the text let me know. I hope this sounds like something you?d like to cover. Is this BLUE or GREEN? Forget The Dress, there's a new...
Within hours of the video going live, Devon, from 3D printing company Make Anything, came to the rescue to reveal the magic behind the mystery (pictured)First prize in the Illusion competition was Mathew T. Harrison and Gideon P. Caplovitz's 'Motion Integration Unleashed: New Tricks for an Old Dog', which shows 'that configurations of drifting Gabors that are stationary can give rise to dramatic global motion percepts'.
In third place is Christine Veras' 'Silhouette Zoetrope, which is an 'homage to early tropes that have been tricking our senses since the Victorian Era'.
The contest is a celebration of 'illusions and perception, created by the ingenuity of the world’s premier illusion creators', according to the site, which describes Illusions as 'perceptual experiences that do not match the physical reality'.
It says: 'How we see the outside world―our perception―is generated indirectly by brain mechanisms, and so all perception is illusory to some extent.
'The study of illusions is critical to how we understand sensory perception, and many ophthalmic and neurological diseases.'
The illusion community is made up of 'visual scientists, ophthalmologists, neurologists, and artists' who use many different methods to discover the underpinnings of illusory perception.
First prize in the Illusion competition was Mathew T. Harrison and Gideon P. Caplovitz's 'Motion Integration Unleashed: New Tricks for an Old Dog'
In third place is Christine Veras' 'Silhouette Zoetrope, which is an 'homage to early tropes that have been tricking our senses since the Victorian Era'
First prize was Mathew T. Harrison and Gideon P. Caplovitz's 'Motion Integration Unleashed: New Tricks for an Old Dog'. Third prize was Christine Veras' 'Silhouette Zoetrope'
The contest is a celebration of 'illusions and perception, created by the ingenuity of the world’s premier illusion creators. Illusions are perceptual experiences that do not match the physical reality'. Pictured: Confetti is thrown at last year's Best Illusion contest