Joseph Plateau

Joseph Plateau was a Belgian physicist and artist, best known for inventing the phenakistoscope in the 1830s, an early device for displaying moving images. This invention is significant in the history of animation and cinema as it demonstrated how sequential images can create the illusion of motion. Plateau's work explored the principles of vision and perception, illustrating how the human eye perceives movement. His contributions laid foundational concepts for later developments in film and animation, earning him recognition as a pioneer in the study of motion and visual phenomena.