This illusion is the “Ambiguous Cylinder Illusion.” Winning “Best Illusion of the Year” in 2016. It was created by Kokichi Sugihara, a professor from Meiji University.

I sat here for a long time trying to understand this phenomenon. The reflections made me believe in magic for a brief while. Then I realized that the shapes were in question.

Ambiguous cylinders are in between the shape of squares and circles. Also, the shapes in the illusion have wavy top edges. Based on our perspective, the brain corrects the shape of the image to appear as a circle or a square.

We can’t wait until the 2017 finalists are announced. Stay tuned on our page for details.