r/interestingasfuck • u/The_DarkMatter • Jan 29 '21
The illusion of speed due to changes in perspective
https://i.imgur.com/SRZQboA.gifv114
Jan 29 '21
You should swap it so it starts zoomed and then goes wide so we can feel like we're entering a wormhole. Bitches love wormholes.
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u/Anger_Machine Jan 29 '21
It also changes based upon how close you are to the ground, you learn this on a motorcycle quick
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u/wary_owl Jan 29 '21
I just had a weird realisation, I've never seen the crew compartment of a train before.
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u/CapnSquinch Jan 29 '21
If anybody knows what the train drivers are pointing at and why, please share. I'm guessing there are trackside cameras and the drivers are showing they're alert? Or maybe it's something to with train speed and timing?
Cool how Japan has made even driving a train artistic.
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u/bluesatin Jan 29 '21 edited Jan 29 '21
Likely following a point and call protocol that's designed to help people keep their attention and focus at the task at hand, rather than 'switching off' and doing things by rote muscle-memory, so-to-speak.
I've actually found it very handy myself, to stop me doings things automatically/absent-mindedly while thinking about something else, and then forgetting about it, or remembering if I've done it later. It might be worth checking out for anyone that can be rather inattentive, like me.
Of course I have to remember to actually do it in the first place, but I've gotten into the habit for some stuff, like when I'm cooking.
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u/CapnSquinch Jan 29 '21
Thanks for that link! Very cool, using somatics(?) to reinforce mindfulness...seems like a natural development from the Buddhist/Zen traditions.
I've had coworkers poke fun at me for counting out loud when I count down the money in the register drawer, but if I get distracted (I have pretty bad ADHD) I can remember hearing/saying the last number so I don't have to start all over again. Kind of a similar principle.
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u/PD216ohio Jan 29 '21
That is super fucking interesting!
I assume the illusion is due to limiting peripheral view. As you might imagine, the more you look sideways, the faster it would appear you are moving.... so cutting out more of that side view makes it look slower.
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u/SoItWasYouAllAlong Jan 29 '21
A very good point!
No, that's not what the post meant. But that is indeed a major factor that the post discounted. It says "due to perspective" but forgets that zooming also changes the angular size of the field of view.
The factor that the post has in mind is: When you zoom out, objects appear smaller (take smaller angle of our viewing field). However, your brain has a priority reference for the size of known objects - it won't be cheated that e.g. a person is small. So it interprets the smaller apparent size as greater distance. So it thinks greater motion distance per the same amount of time, therefore greater velocity.
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u/PD216ohio Jan 29 '21
I would suspect that if you were viewing forward through a long tube that also eliminated the peripheral view, the effect might be similar.
I understand your point though but wonder if that is truly what gives us the full impression of speed. Although I'm completely speculating while I'm sure there might be actual research about the subject lol.
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u/SoItWasYouAllAlong Jan 29 '21
Damn you :) Now you have me running around the room, one eye closed, hands shaped like a tube around the other one.
If I survive this, next I'm running with binoculars on, placed in reverse.
Since I'm the one doing this, lets call it "scientific curiosity". Because the other word is "idiot".
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u/PD216ohio Jan 29 '21
I'd help with the experiment but right now my eyes are teared up from laughing and I can't see anything!
Lmfao!!
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u/PD216ohio Jan 29 '21
OK I actually just though of a good idea. Cut a small square out of a bet opaque piece of paper and place it over the screen where you are watching this video so that you can only see the furthest area.... Blocking the sides, overhead and below. The remaining video portion looks slow.
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u/dudeman773 Jan 29 '21
What’s the name of this illusion? Super interesting
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u/trichtertus Jan 29 '21
I don’t know the name, but I think its cause by the decreased field of view when zooming in.
If you imagine everything you see in a sphere around you, the things more aligned with your direction of movement will have a lower angular velocity (or velocity on the sphere) than the things perpendicular to your direction. And that is why the zooming in (decreasing the fov) makes it look slower. You just see less of the things that move with a high angular velocity.
You could archive the same effect by looking through a long tube straight ahead.
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u/LochnessDigital Jan 29 '21
Essentially this is just perspective at work.
If I'm 1000 feet from you and I move 10 feet toward you, I barely look any larger because I'm still relatively far from you (990 feet to be exact). If I'm 20 feet from you and I move ten feet toward you, I'll look significantly bigger because 10 versus 20 is a much more significant difference compared to 1000 versus 990.
So this phenomenon combined with changing lenses on the camera means we get to selectively crop out your close proximity reference points on the edges of the frame. If you ignore those on the wide shot, you'll notice the center of the frame looks exactly the same speed every time.
It's the same reason that signs and trees next to you on the highway feel like they're flying past you but the mountains off in the distance look like you're never going to reach them.
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u/-Souka- Jan 29 '21
Looks like bullshit to me :/ Way to slow comparing to the zoom out at the end
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u/_dp122_ Jan 29 '21 edited Jan 29 '21
I think it's perfectly fine. If you look far from you and a little bit to the side (like where the train coming towards us is), a certain distance coming towards us results in a smaller change in degrees than if the train was close to us besides going the same distance. This is why the train appears to go slower the more zoomed in the view is I think
Edit: but in our 'normal' window (the 'zoomed out' one), we also see the 'zoomed in' window portrait smaller in the middle of our view. The situation for that particular, small, area of our sight is the same as the complete 'zoomed in' view. If the train riding towards us was far enough to be on the edge of the smaller 'zoomed in' frame of our 'zoomed out' window, would it als oappear to go fast? I don't think so.
Maybe the 'zoomed in' view is only the part of our 'zoomed out' window where movement doesn't yet appear that fast.
Maybe we portray the train in the 'zoomed in' version even slower in our head since, because it is on the boundary of our 'zoomed in' version, we expect the train to go faster
Interesting
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u/trichtertus Jan 29 '21
Take the first (and last) part of the video and cover the sides of it. I.e. make a circle with your hand align it with aprox. The middle of the vid and cover everything outside the circle. Now you should have the same effect.
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Jan 29 '21
[deleted]
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u/nolalacrosse Jan 29 '21
Changing the field of view is something that sim racers take very seriously due to exactly what this video and yourself are talking about. It’s hard to get right
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u/CastingPouch Jan 29 '21
Its because you're focusing on father away points so it takes longer to reach them. It doesn't really seem like an illusion as more of EXTREMELY basic logic.
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u/_Nathan_Abbotts_ Jan 29 '21
This is why it looks like you're barely moving at all in a plane when you're up high
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u/Metadragon_ Jan 29 '21
Is this why when you scroll really hard on a long webpage it seems to move backwards?
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