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Show HN: MagicEye.js – Generate Magic Eye in Your Browser

peeinears.github.io

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Re: Show HN: MagicEye.js – Generate Magic Eye in Your Browser

#21

Post by saurik »

zbowling wrote: post #18
robert_tweed wrote: post #9

If you don't quite have the knack for relaxing your eyes to see these, here's "one weird trick". Position yourself with something behind you (such as a window) that you can see reflected on the screen. Focus on the reflection so you are looking "through" the screen. Now re-focus on the screen, but not immediately! Hold your focus and let it "slip" as slowly as possible. At some point your eyes will converge at the ri…

Nope. Doesn't work. Everyone's advice fails to work for me. I tend to think this is just a mass conspiracy or giant elaborate joke. I'm going to use this JS script to generate tests to see if I can get people who can do this to tell what the number is behind this "magic eye". Call everyone on their bullshit.

If you cross your eyes, can you get a reverse (inset, concave) image? I don't understand why magic eyes are always implemented in the way that requires people to do something almost impossible (ignore an object in front of them and try to focus on something further away) when almost everyone can cross their eyes and those that can't can probably force their eyes to do it with a piece of string or a pencil or something. I still have never managed to see a magic eye correctly (outset, convex), but can at least decode what other people are seeing in reverse by crossing my eyes :(.

Re: Show HN: MagicEye.js – Generate Magic Eye in Your Browser

#22

Post by robert_tweed »

zbowling wrote: post #18
robert_tweed wrote: post #9

If you don't quite have the knack for relaxing your eyes to see these, here's "one weird trick". Position yourself with something behind you (such as a window) that you can see reflected on the screen. Focus on the reflection so you are looking "through" the screen. Now re-focus on the screen, but not immediately! Hold your focus and let it "slip" as slowly as possible. At some point your eyes will converge at the ri…

Nope. Doesn't work. Everyone's advice fails to work for me. I tend to think this is just a mass conspiracy or giant elaborate joke. I'm going to use this JS script to generate tests to see if I can get people who can do this to tell what the number is behind this "magic eye". Call everyone on their bullshit.

A small number of people will never be able to see them, but AFAIK if you have normal stereo vision (no lazy eyes etc.) then you should be able, with practise. Since these particular stereograms use coloured random dots, the colourblind might have some extra trouble with them.

I messed around with SIRDS quite a lot in the 90s. I found it hard to see them at first, but the reflection technique initially worked for me and after a while, I had no problem seeing them and even started seeing them by accident in wallpaper patterns and the like.

Another thing that makes a difference is the width of the strips used in the stereogram compared to your IPD. Depending on the width of these, it might be easier to sit closer to, or further away from the screen. Once you get the basic technique you can tolerate a wider range of widths, but at first it can be tricky. It might help to start really close to the screen and slowly move your head backwards as you try to focus.

Re: Show HN: MagicEye.js – Generate Magic Eye in Your Browser

#23

Post by robert_tweed »

jdpage wrote: post #12
ollysb wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's how I do it: you'll notice that there's a repeating pattern, cross your eyes until you get two of the repititions to be on top of each other. Once you've done this you should find that the shapes pop out.

This is how I do it. The problem is that this inverts the depth map, because your right eye sees the left eye image and vice-versa. To properly view them, you need to go wall-eyed, by focusing on something behind the screen. This is something that I have not been able to do yet.

The other problem with the cross-eyed technique is that it can be hard to maintain a sharp focus on the 3D shapes. And it will really hurt after a while.

It's a good technique if the repeating strips are really wide. On my screen at least, the strips here are pretty narrow, so it should be relatively easy to converge your eyes correctly.

Having said that, I don't know if this script is resolution independent, so it's possible that on some monitors the strips are a lot wider than they should be and that could be giving people more trouble.

Re: Show HN: MagicEye.js – Generate Magic Eye in Your Browser

#24

Post by ivanceras »

zbowling wrote: post #17
ivanceras wrote: post #16

I wonder if we could use Magic eye as a replacement for captcha.

they don't work on a significant portion of the population. edit: like myself.

I would really like to participate in "What are you working on this week" thread such as in Lobste.rs but I couldn't since they require invites only, which I don't know anyone who has accounts already. The purpose of their invites-only was to avoid spam. If that's what they really want, then Magic Eye will make spammers bleed their eye, and the potential users who really want to join will have to take time learning Magic Eye, which I think pays the trade off.

Re: Show HN: MagicEye.js – Generate Magic Eye in Your Browser

#25

Post by junto »

I hate these things. Ever since I was a child I've never been able to see them, no matter how far away, how much I squint, nothing, nada.

As a child I became convinced that everyone was taking the piss out of me. Aged nearly forty, I stand by that!

I still can't see the damn things ;-)

Re: Show HN: MagicEye.js – Generate Magic Eye in Your Browser

#27

Post by Sarkie »

junto wrote: post #25

I hate these things. Ever since I was a child I've never been able to see them, no matter how far away, how much I squint, nothing, nada. As a child I became convinced that everyone was taking the piss out of me. Aged nearly forty, I stand by that! I still can't see the damn things ;-)

So I learnt how to do it as a kid.

Basically, what I do is, imagine you are looking through the image and past it, like if you were looking through a tiled window and wanted to focus on the on something outside small. Then after refocusing your eyes (you can't blink or else it'll reset your eyes) keep doing it, it can take you ages, what you'll see are the tiles.

Also what helped me, is focusing on a single point and moving back and forth.

Good luck!

Re: Show HN: MagicEye.js – Generate Magic Eye in Your Browser

#28

Post by wingerlang »

junto wrote: post #25

I hate these things. Ever since I was a child I've never been able to see them, no matter how far away, how much I squint, nothing, nada. As a child I became convinced that everyone was taking the piss out of me. Aged nearly forty, I stand by that! I still can't see the damn things ;-)

Does squinting work? (for someone else, that is, not the guy I'm replying too where it obviously doesn't). It's just a matter of focusing your eye behind the screen. The moment I found the ease of it was when I was pretty close and had my hand behind the screen (laptop) for some "distance" to focus on. Now I seem to get everyone, at least once. Then I can't get it again very easy for some reason..

EDIT: As a cue from another response, focusing on your own reflection works really well (even if the reflection is not super visible it works for me, although a smidge harder).

Re: Show HN: MagicEye.js – Generate Magic Eye in Your Browser

#29

Post by sika_grr »

sika_grr wrote: post #26
prezjordan wrote: post #5

What a fantastic idea! Just drew my name, love it.

Wait, did it get your name right? It's kinda buggy for me, it draws every letter twice for me (twice in 3D, of course it has to draw it twice in 2D).

Nevermind, I managed to squint enough to get the letters to combine into a perfect image. It should not be possible to get more than 1 correct 3D image, the period of the background should be increased.

Re: Show HN: MagicEye.js – Generate Magic Eye in Your Browser

#30

Post by thu »

junto wrote: post #25

I hate these things. Ever since I was a child I've never been able to see them, no matter how far away, how much I squint, nothing, nada. As a child I became convinced that everyone was taking the piss out of me. Aged nearly forty, I stand by that! I still can't see the damn things ;-)

I find parallel viewing difficult but cross-eyed quite easy. If you can raise a finger and squint and consistently manage to see two fingers, you should manage:

Do it again with two fingers in front of you, you should be able to see four fingers. Adapt how much you squint in order to see "three" fingers (i.e. two of them overlap). (Practice to perfectly control how much you squint: you should start at zero squinting and increase slightly until you achieve the overlapping.)

Once you can do that easily, replace your fingers by the SIRDS generated on that website. Instead of two fingers, you use two features on that image that you see are repeating. You choose two of them that are next to each other. You do exactly as with your finger: turn those two features in "three". Now I think this is the harder part: as you do that, you have to relax and let your view adapat so as the image becomes perfectly neat (not blurry at all).

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