The Illusion of Psychiatrist Akioshi Kitaoka

Psychiatrist Akioshi Kitaoka’s illusion shows how our vision can deceive us

A Japanese psychiatrist has published a video taken from the driver’s compartment of a train, demonstrating how visual field affects the perception of speed.

When the camera has a wide angle of view, and we see a lot of things around us – both inside and outside the train cabin – our brain uses all these details to estimate how fast the train is moving.

But as the camera zooms in, and we see less of the stuff around us, our brains lose those visual cues and start thinking the train is moving slower even though the speed doesn’t change.

This is because without external orientation points for the brain, it is more difficult to accurately estimate speed.