Rob Adams Unit 31 M1 Persistence of Vision

Rob Adams

Unit 31

M1 - Explain the Theory of Persistence of Vision.


The theory of the Persistence of Vision is the phenomenon where the retina of a persons eye actually retains an image it sees for a very short time. When images are shown one after another in at a certain rate, the human eye supposedly retains the image it see's, meaning that the space between each image is not noticeable, giving the illusion of animation. As seen in the video to the right, an illusion of constant movement can be created when images are played one after another. To create the animations shown in this video, the creator would have spent a lengthy amount of time slightly adjusting the image and then adding it to the next frame, before moving on and doing the same thing. The theory of persistence of vision would say that the retention of an image within the retina, ensures that when these frames are played in a sequence, it would create the illusion of animation, as the human eye does not see the pause pause between each frame.

Harvard Referencing:

Glossary: Persistence of Vision. 2013. Glossary: Persistence of Vision. [ONLINE] Available at: http://animation.about.com/od/glossaryofterms/g/pervision_def.htm. [Accessed 04 November 2013].

 Persistence of vision. 2013. Persistence of vision. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Persistence_of_vision.html. [Accessed 04 November 2013].