Video: Optical Illusion Ring

From the creators of one of the best video illusions we have in our archives (Little Green Dragon), here comes another interesting toy. Have you heard about optical illusion ring? Apparently, when you turn the ring one way, it seems to be getting fatter; but rotate it in the opposite direction, and it will seem to get thinner and thinner!

The illusion is utterly convincing, and really quite unexpected. It has to be something connected with those little holes in the ring. Seems they somehow visually change their size as you rotate the ring. Anywayz, however it works – it works really well! Let’s discuss what’s the effect in action here. Hope you liked this one – looking forward to hear your comments!

83 Replies to “Video: Optical Illusion Ring”

  1. Ooh! i want one in silver please!!! hehe. It’s sort of like an illusion of movement.. something about that corkscrew shape the two lines have give the illusion. Very awsome and intricate. x.x so want.

  2. this is a very lovely trick of the eye. It is how the braids are made that makes the illusion work

  3. very good for the average guy but easy if you think about it. The reason it seems smaller is because you can no longer see the hole and so the angle of the ring then leads the mind to think it is smaller because every line looks like it becomes smaller

  4. Can they make one that makes diamonds bigger? That would be perfect for that other optical illusion…. Marriage.

  5. its kind of hard to see in this video but i did notice it i think it has to do with the holes and the way the bands themselves seem to be twisted.
    i think i want one of these rings

  6. In the still picture the ring appears thin at the top and thick at the bottom. I think the illusion is caused because at the top its like looking through layers of chain links (stacked up) where as at the bottom your looking at the tops of the links.

    I think the technical term is imbrication and is a method of identifying which way a river flows by just looking at the stones(if there is no water visible in the river). If you look up the river where this happens, the river bed has lots of small stones, where as looking down the river the river bed has fewer large stones, dispite the stones all being the same size – a nice optical illusion in its own right.

  7. i have to admit, I couldn’t see it getting any smaller or bigger… mainly because his finger was covering half the ring

  8. ahh thats pretty cool
    you can see it’s because of the twists
    in the ring and the way the light is reflected
    makes it appear to be shrinking or getting bigger

  9. I think it’s actually the way the light reflects off the internal edges that makes the illusion. I wonder how it would look without the bright light shining..

  10. I think its something to do with the V shape pattern that appears on the ring. When you look at the pattern from its open end, you will see the gaps and it will have an effect of it being larger. If you see the V pattern from its sharp end, the gaps between the pattern will be hidden and it will appear to be smaller.

  11. its all the reflection of the light and the gaps in the ring that makes it appear smaller or bigger depending on how u turn it

  12. well this one is really cool, it probably has something to do with the way the light is hitting it as well.

  13. Very nice. I assume it works by the angle of the central piece between holes and the angle of undercut and protuberences around the hole which makes the holes appear to close as they are viewed obliquely making the ring look thinner. Looking into the holes head on or slightly the other way, the opennings look larger and the ring fatter.

  14. I think the key to it is that the holes are at such an extreme angle – it’s more like connected lilies than a simple braid.

  15. I didn’t notice it at first but after a while I noticed the chinks inside the ring getting larger and smaller. Liked it but didn’t love it. Worth watching video though :D

  16. The secret is not the holes. It is the curvy surface that is like two drill bits with their groves winding in opposite directions. The effect is created by the reflections following the groves.

  17. As far as I can work out the illusion works similarly to a drill bit – if you twist it the threds seem to turn up or down. If I’m right its to do with where the eyes are drawn by the twisting motion and by the play of light on the ring

  18. First coment i think! Its cool, is it like that earth illusion which seemed to go forward and went on forever?

  19. Well, yeah it’s the latticework that causes the illusion; that and the static point of view, like almost every other optical illusion. Nice, but by no means impressive.

  20. It appears, to me, that the holes go from smaller to larger. It also seems to have a little more gold as the ring gets larger. It is a remarkable illusion, yes indeed, yes indeed.

  21. Interesting illusion. It’s created by the reflections of a single light source on each half of the ring. As the ring moves, the angle of reflection changes on the surface of the ring, moving the point of reflection either inwards or outwards, depending on direction of rotation, creating almost a zipper effect. It creates the idea that the two halves of the ring are at one moment separate, but as the ring rotates, the two halves merge, or vice-versa. The illusion might not be as effective with ring made of a less-reflective material, but that’s just a supposition.

  22. In each interlaced piece of the ring, there is a wide opening which decreases in size. When you turn it one way, the large section replaces the small one (in perspective) making it seem to grow. In the other direction, when the ring is turned, the small parts line up and seem to be tightening.. pretty simple :)

  23. Fascinating! I love it!! You have out done yourself again! Keep up the great illusions…

  24. It’s just appears that way from a reflection in light, which makes the gold shine and seem to expand and get smaller. But it would be pretty cool to have one of those, I suppose. Not the best I’ve seen though. I still like the Little Dragon Illusion. :D

  25. To simplify all the complicated explanations:

    The small holes are angled one direction into the “cone” shaped loops, so you lose sight of them as the ring rotates.

  26. I’m sure that I know a little how this works, it will be a bit difficult to explain though.

    Each of the little designs are slanted at an angle so if you look at it (how everyone else looked at it in the video) it would give your eyes the illusion that the ring was zipping up or shrinking as some say. I hope that made sense.. if I had the ring it’d be easier to explain. I could be wrong however.

  27. what if the ring really did change from the back of the ring to the face, he only turns it a litte in each direction. the part that is at the back of your finger could be tighter or smaller and the part that shows may be broader.

    1. thats dumb Zeb you should really look before you post. You can seee enough of the ring to ee that itss the same all around, but only looks differnt because of the stuff the other people said

  28. they do sell these rings online. all you need to do is google optical illusion ring, they are less than 10 bucks.

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