I often noticed that people, especially young students, tend to tilt their paper when writing. Seeing children working at their desks in such a posture made me concerned about the potential effects on their pelvis and spine.

To address this, I applied the principle of the Fraser illusion. By alternating soccer balls with predominantly white designs and predominantly black designs, and by adding diagonal black-and-white bands near the equator of each ball, I created an acute-angle underestimation illusion.

As a result, even though the soccer balls are arranged perfectly horizontally, they appear to descend diagonally to the right. Writing on this desk mat allows the writer to perceive a relative angle between the true horizontal edge of the paper and the seemingly downward-sloping rows of soccer balls. This suppresses excessive tilting of the paper, helping to correct the habit of placing it at an upward angle on the dominant-hand side, and thereby reducing the risk of spinal distortion.

Since many optical illusions can be uncomfortable to look at for long periods, I chose a soccer ball motif to make the design more familiar and appealing, even to young children.

Design Patent No. 1678866

Registration Date: January 21, 2021

All application procedures and expenses were carried out personally