To this day the thing I think about when someone mentions a stereogram is this version of tetris.
http://3dimka.deviantart.com/art/3D-Stereogram-Tetris-367952...
Show HN: MagicEye.js – Generate Magic Eye in Your Browser
31–40 of 49 posts
Re: Show HN: MagicEye.js – Generate Magic Eye in Your Browser
#32It would have been better if the demo image was not a random generated shape thing. I spent a few minutes trying to figure out what the hell I was looking at in there. Is it a wave? A recursive wave? wtf, X
That's my opinion too. I love 3D. I've made lots of 3D images, classic LR pairs, and SIS, but I'm not enamored of RSIS. One thing about the random stereograms commonly produced, including the demos here, is that having too many horizontal repeats makes the image harder to fuse at usual viewing range.
I'd suggest limiting vertical panels to 7 or so, which would make it easier to see in 3D on a small screen. That goes for any SIS, whether random or bitmap slice "surface". To my sensibilities, the random dot type, as opposed to a normal bitmap image slice used as the vertical panel, is much less visually interesting and gives the viewing eyes much less to grab onto.
IMO a carefully chosen bitmap thematically or visually coordinated with an elegant carefully drawn depth map creates a work of art that can be appreciated for its interesting shape and color even by viewers who can't grok the 3D effect.
Besides, looking at something beautiful can motivate people to keep trying to see the 3D part come into focus, and eventually some do succeed. When that happens it really is like "magic".
Re: Show HN: MagicEye.js – Generate Magic Eye in Your Browser
#33Nicely done. I just wonder where to embed these...
Re: Show HN: MagicEye.js – Generate Magic Eye in Your Browser
#34I 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 always found it diffult to focus behind. However it's much easier to focus before, but it makes the depth inverted.
As a kid I always did it this way and was frustated because it makes it very hard to recognize the subject.
Re: Show HN: MagicEye.js – Generate Magic Eye in Your Browser
#35I 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 ;-)
You're probably pretty familiar with how things appear when you intentionally cross your eyes. When you intentionally focus farther away the appearance of close items is "different"... sort of like cross eyed focus but not really. Normally this is a strong signal to your vision system to change to a closer focus and this is pretty close to an autonomous response... but with practice and control you can control it.
It might help to practice explicitly changing your focus from far to close and back to far (the back to far part is what you should pay attention to and practice). Do this practice with your monitor's edge (or the text at the very top of the monitor) and the paper. Get used to how the monitor looks when you're focused well behind it (your brain/eyes "naturally" want to shift to a close focus... this is likely a survivability trait... things close to your head are important/possibly dangerous... so overriding this takes careful practice/effort/concentration).
Try positioning the image at the top of your monitor (if you have a narrow bezel) and make sure the image is only about two thirds or one half visible (i.e. scrolled up a bit). Behind your monitor, a foot or two away, have something easy to look at (eg. blank piece of white paper). Pay attention to your peripheral vision... but don't change where you're looking... just be aware of what's in your peripheral vision, especially the weird color pattern. It should appear "weird" because it doesn't match your memory of the actual pattern... if you know what I mean. Still focusing on the paper, and paying attention to your peripheral vision, move your head up/down a little bit, try not to move your eyes... i.e. where you're focused should move up/down the same amount. You should notice the weirdness (in your peripheral vision) of the image increase/change. Now... if the paper is far enough behind your monitor... when you move your head down farther you should start to see "something". By focusing farther away the "something" should become much clearer. Gradual move your attention to the "something" (keep moving your head) and your focus should naturally move out and the items become clear (especially if you're moving your head... the background will move behind the items in the foreground).
Note for the image from the article the items are just a few narrow triangles, some close, some farther away, some overlapped.
Also... make sure your eyes are level with the image. Rotate your head a few degrees (10... maybe 15 or 20) and the image cannot be seen.
The first time you see one of these images you might be disappointed. They are just 3d shapes wrapped in a strange color pattern (the same pattern in the background and on all objects).
Re: Show HN: MagicEye.js – Generate Magic Eye in Your Browser
#36I 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 ;-)
Put two dots above the (smallest increment of the) repeating part of the pattern. Work on getting those two dots to overlay (forming three dots with the one in the center bright and those on the outside lighter.)
Once you can do that it's as easy as moving your eyes down while maintaining your eye position (and if that really doesn't work you can try drawing two dark black lines down the image.)
Enjoy! Unless you can't get those dots to overlay in which case you at least then know why you were never able to do it :)
Re: Show HN: MagicEye.js – Generate Magic Eye in Your Browser
#37If 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.
Here's how I (accidentally) learned to do it: hold up a forefinger from each hand, pointed at each other, with a very small gap in between. Now look at something in the distance through the gap: you should see a magic "hot dog finger" floating in the air between them.
Once you can see this, alternate between looking at your fingers and looking at the distance. Once you've got the mechanic down, you can start intentionally unfocusing without anything in the distance to look at, which is what it takes to see a magic eye.
Re: Show HN: MagicEye.js – Generate Magic Eye in Your Browser
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Look, it's a schooner! ;) There's pretty recent music video that's all autostereogram: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AKtp3XHn38 The dots at the beginning are helpful. I don't think MagicEye.js is fast enough to do a bunch of frames on the fly for some real-time animation, unfort. But if you already have the frames rendered you could stitch them together into a gif.
I did an animated 3d plasma for js1k some time ago. It's not fast but it's animated: http://js1k.com/2013-spring/demo/1412 h key toggles the height map. It uses a simplified version of the MagicEye.js algorithm which generates horizontally repeating patterns for hard height changes in the source image. That's why I went with a plasma in the end. Source is available here: https://github.com/philippstucki/sird-plasma/b…
Really cool! I've wanted to see a dynamic animated MagicEye in action ever since I saw an Oculus Rift demo video with side by side left/right views and was able to get a 3D effect in the middle by focusing on it like a magic eye. It was hard to do because of the distance and looked pretty ugly because the separate L/R views were still visible. I tried to make my own but quickly gave up. If snappier animation is possible, there's definitely some fun to be had in game form. Recreations of the old vector based arcade games would be really fun. I wounder if there would be any effect, bad or good, on your eyes staring at one for too long.
Re: Show HN: MagicEye.js – Generate Magic Eye in Your Browser
#39Some explanation of what this is supposed to be would be helpful I think. Just looks like a strange grainy image to me.
Re: Show HN: MagicEye.js – Generate Magic Eye in Your Browser
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 M…
Yes, let's cut off all user with visibility problems from our websites!