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Timeline · 1804–2007

Who Saw It First

Optical illusion timeline — discoverers, first description, sources

The years below are when each phenomenon was first described in writing. Every figure on this site is rebuilt from the underlying principle — none are borrowed from anyone else’s work. Click a name to try the illusion yourself.

19th century

  1. 1804 · Ignaz Paul Vital Troxler

    Fading Dots

    Fading Dots

  2. 1832 · Louis Albert Necker

    Necker Cube

    Necker Cube

    Necker was drawing a crystal figure when he noticed its depth spontaneously flipped.

  3. 1834 · Robert Addams

    Motion Aftereffect

    Frozen but Moving

    Called the "waterfall illusion" because rocks appeared to move upward after Addams watched a Scottish waterfall. The description of the phenomenon itself is said to trace back to Aristotle.

  4. 1839 · Michel Eugène Chevreul

    Simultaneous Contrast

    Simultaneous Contrast

    Source: "De la loi du contraste simultané des couleurs" (The Law of Simultaneous Contrast of Colors)

  5. 1839 · Michel Eugène Chevreul

    Gradient Bar

    Gradient Bar

    Source: "De la loi du contraste simultané des couleurs" (The Law of Simultaneous Contrast of Colors)

    The starting point was Chevreul's work as dye-shop director at the Gobelins tapestry works, investigating complaints that thread colors looked different next to other colors.

  6. 1851 · Adolf Fick

    Vertical / Horizontal

    Vertical / Horizontal

    Source: Doctoral thesis, University of Marburg (published 1852)

    Showed that a square appears taller than it is wide, and argued this could not be explained by the eye's optics alone.

  7. 1855 · Johann Joseph Oppel

    Filled Space

    Oppel-Kundt

    Oppel described it in under a page without a figure; August Kundt studied it in detail in 1863, which is why both names are attached to it.

  8. 1860 · Johann Christian Poggendorff

    Poggendorff Line

    Poggendorff Line

    Poggendorff, the journal editor who received Zöllner's letter about his own illusion figure, noticed this separate illusion in it.

  9. 1860 · Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner

    Zöllner Lines

    Zöllner Lines

    Noticed in a fabric pattern, and reported to the journal Poggendorff edited.

  10. 1861 · Ewald Hering

    Hering Lines

    Hering Lines

  11. 1865 · Ernst Mach

    Mach Bands

    Mach Bands

  12. 1865 · Joseph Delboeuf

    Delboeuf Circles

    Delboeuf Circles

  13. 1870 · Ludimar Hermann

    Hermann Grid

    Hermann Grid

  14. 1886 · Ernst Mach

    Square and Diamond

    Square and Diamond

    Source: "Beiträge zur Analyse der Empfindungen" (Contributions to the Analysis of Sensations)

    The observation that the same shape reads as a different one when rotated 45 degrees.

  15. 1889 · Franz Carl Müller-Lyer

    Müller-Lyer

    Müller-Lyer

    Source: “Optische Urteilstäuschungen”, Archiv für Anatomie und Physiologie

  16. 1889 · Joseph Jastrow

    Jastrow Arcs

    Jastrow Arcs

    Franz Carl Müller-Lyer described a related effect the same year. Also called the "Wundt–Jastrow illusion" or the "boomerang illusion".

  17. 1897 · Hugo Münsterberg

    Café Wall

    Café Wall

    Source: „Die verschobene Schachbrettfigur“, Zeitschrift für Psychologie und Physiologie der Sinnesorgane

    Richard Gregory and Priscilla Heard rediscovered it on the tiled wall of a café in Bristol and analysed it in "Border locking and the Café Wall illusion" (1979), which gave it its current name. It is also called the "kindergarten illusion".

20th century

  1. 1911 · Mario Ponzo

    Ponzo Rails

    Ponzo Rails

  2. 1915 · Edgar Rubin

    Vase or Faces

    Vase or Faces

    Source: "Synsoplevede Figurer" (Visually Experienced Figures)

    Figure-ground segregation: the picture flips depending on which part you read as "the object".

  3. 1934 · Oscar Reutersvärd

    Penrose Triangle

    Penrose Triangle

    The Swedish artist drew it first, out of stacked cubes. Lionel and Roger Penrose made it famous as an "impossible object" in 1958.

  4. 1946 · Adelbert Ames Jr.

    Ames Room

    Ames Room

    Devised by perception researcher Adelbert Ames Jr. as a distorted room seen through a single peephole with one eye.

  5. 1953 · Hans Wallach / D. N. O'Connell

    Reversing Ring

    Reversing Ring

    Source: "The kinetic depth effect", Journal of Experimental Psychology

    A silhouette of a rotating solid carries no depth cues, so it can be read two ways.

  6. 1953 · Hans Wallach / D. N. O'Connell

    Spinning Point Clouds

    Spinning Point Clouds

    Source: "The kinetic depth effect", Journal of Experimental Psychology

    Nobuyuki Kayahara's "Spinning Dancer" (2003) is a widely known work built on the same depth ambiguity.

  7. 1953 · Hans Wallach / D. N. O'Connell

    Spinning Wireframes

    Wireframe solids

    Source: “The kinetic depth effect”, Journal of Experimental Psychology

    Showed that depth can be read from the shadow of a rotating wire figure. The ambiguity of a still line drawing is known from Louis Albert Necker’s 1832 description of the cube.

  8. 1955 · Gaetano Kanizsa

    Kanizsa Triangle

    Kanizsa Triangle

    A subjective contour: an outline appears where none is actually drawn. Friedrich Schumann reported a similar figure earlier, in 1900.

  9. 1958 · Lionel & Roger Penrose

    Penrose Stairs

    Penrose Stairs

    A geneticist father and mathematician son introduced it with the triangle in their 1958 paper. It inspired Escher’s print Ascending and Descending (1960).

  10. 1970 · Hans Munker

    Munker Colors

    Munker Colors

    Part of the same lineage as the color assimilation effect Wilhelm von Bezold reported in 1874, and closely related to White's illusion.

  11. 1979 · Michael White

    White’s Illusion

    White’s Illusion

    An example showing brightness is not determined by "contrast with the immediate neighbour" alone.

  12. 1990 · Roger N. Shepard

    Turning the Tables

    Shepard Tables

    Source: "Mind Sights" (1990)

    Introduced as "Turning the Tables".

  13. 1994 · Elke Lingelbach

    Scintillating Grid

    Scintillating Grid

    Reported as a variant of the Hermann grid.

  14. 1995 · Edward H. Adelson

    Checker Shadow

    Checker Shadow

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Only the general principle is referenced; the figure here is rebuilt from scratch for this site.

  15. 1999 · Jacques Faubert / Andrew Herbert

    Drifting Tiles

    Drifting Tiles

    Source: "The peripheral drift illusion: A motion illusion in the visual periphery", Perception

    Akiyoshi Kitaoka's "Rotating Snakes" (2003) is the best-known work built on the same principle. No figure from that work is referenced here — only the underlying mechanism of apparent motion in peripheral vision is implemented from scratch.

  16. 1999 · Jacques Faubert / Andrew Herbert

    Wave Drift

    Wave Drift

    Source: "The peripheral drift illusion: A motion illusion in the visual periphery", Perception

    The same effect family (peripheral drift) as [Drifting Tiles](/en/illusions/drifting-tiles/), with only the row phase changed.

21st century

  1. 2006 · Aude Oliva / Antonio Torralba / Philippe Schyns

    Hidden Text

    Hidden Text

    Source: “Hybrid images”, ACM SIGGRAPH

    Two layers are combined: one carrying high spatial frequencies, one carrying low.

  2. 2006 · Max Dürsteler

    Freezing Rotation

    Freezing Rotation

    Source: Dürsteler, "The freezing rotation illusion", Progress in Brain Research 171 (2008)

    Winner of the 2006 Best Illusion of the Year Contest. The paper followed in 2008.

  3. 2007 · Frederick Kingdom

    Leaning Tower Illusion

    Leaning Tower

    Source: Kingdom, Yoonessi & Gheorghiu, "The Leaning Tower illusion: a new illusion of perspective", Perception (2007)

    Published with Ali Yoonessi and Elena Gheorghiu. Winner of the Best Illusion of the Year Contest that same year.

Undated

  1. Anthony Norcia

    Hidden Circles

    Coffer Illusion

    Known as a pattern of rectangles resembling a coffered ceiling, with circles hidden inside it. This site’s figure re-implements the stripe-panel and circle layout independently.

  2. Hermann Ebbinghaus

    Ebbinghaus

    Ebbinghaus

    Described by Ebbinghaus (1850–1909); introduced to English speakers by Edward B. Titchener's 1901 psychology textbook, hence "Titchener circles". The first-description year is unsettled.

  3. unknown

    Impossible Trident (Devil's Fork)

    Impossible Trident

    Widely known from a 1964 Norman Mingo cover for MAD magazine; no single inventor is firmly established.

  4. Wilhelm Wundt

    Wundt Lines

    Wundt Lines

    Described in the late 19th century. It pairs with the Hering illusion, with the parallel lines appearing to curve in the opposite direction. The exact year of first description is not settled.

People · 39

The same person sometimes described more than one illusion. Under each name are the works they are linked to.

See all 42 works