Student Shoya Matsuda wins prize at Illusion Contest in Japan

Shoya Matsuda, a 4th-year Life Science and Technology student, has won an award at the 17th Visual and Auditory Illusion Contest in Japan. The contest evaluates works that induce illusions related to vision or hearing from both academic and expressive perspectives. The award ceremony for the winners was held on November 29 during the 44th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Psychonomic Society.

Floating Circles, Matsuda’s award-winning work, is an optical illusion where white circles appear to float three-dimensionally. This is achieved using an image processing technique called the Gaussian blur, which uses a mathematical Gaussian function to soften, smooth, and blur images.

To experience the illusion, viewers should display the image on their monitor screen enlarged and stare at the red dot in the center for about 20 seconds. The 16 white circles should begin to appear three-dimensional. The principle behind the illusion is that since the white circles are not at the center of the visual field, they are perceived as existing closer to the viewer than the red dot.

Matsuda is currently conducting brain research as part of his research project under Institute for Liberal Arts (ILA) Associate Professor Yasunori Kotani. He is also the creator of Picody, the official mascot for the Science Tokyo Ookayama Festival.

• Department of Life Science and Technology, School of Life Science and Technology
• School of Life Science and Technology

• Yasunori Kotani Laboratory & SPN Laboratory
• Institute for Liberal Arts

• 17th Visual and Auditory Illusion Contest in Japan (Japanese)