Persistence of Vison

Persistence of Vison is key to how we view movement in animation, also in film, video and computer games. With in animation, film video and computer games, the image is not actually moving, but we are shown a sequence of small still images, each image being slightly different, being shown for a very short period of timeImages presented in sequence for such brief periods of time are not actually understood by the eye and brain, but the brain is tricked into connecting these images together and reading the sequence as movement.

Persistence of vision  has been around since 5000BC in ancient China. However, in the Victorian Age, their love of novelty and invention, saw many toys and gadgets that used the process of persistence of vision.

The Zoetrope 
The zoetrope consists of a cylinder with slits cut into the sides. in the inner circle of the cylinder is a strip with images from a set of sequenced pictures. As the cylinder rotates, as you look through the slits at the pictures across. The scanning of the slits keeps the pictures from simply blurring together, and the user sees a rapid succession of images, producing the illusion of motion.

The Phenakistoscope
The phenakistoscope uses a spinning disc attached  to a handle. Around the disc's center is a series of drawings showing the different stages of the animation, and cut through it were a series of equally spaced radial slits. The user spins the disc and look through the moving slits at the disc's reflection in a mirror, doing this tricks the brain into thinking the image is moving. 

The Kinetoscope

The kinetoscope consisted of a closed cabinet in which the film was viewed. To work the device, the viewer opened the top and peered through a small hole, and as the film was moved across a series of rollers, a backlight would illuminate it, creating the illusion of a moving picture, as long as the film was rotated at the proper speed.

The Mutoscope

The mutoscope is a moving image machine which the series of views,showing different parts  of a scene, are printed on paper and placed around the sides of a wheel. The rotation of the wheel brightens them rapidly into sight, one after another, showing a moving image.