Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I've acquired a new superpower

danielwirtz.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

571–580 of 583 posts

Re: I've acquired a new superpower

#571

Post by jcul »

PaulHoule wrote: post #105
soco wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't overlap the images to save my life - they get like halfway there and that's it...

It's like https://triaxes.com/docs/3DTheory-en/522ParallelCrosseyedvie... which some people struggle with, somebody posted a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autostereogram to HN yesterday which some people get and others don't. (That's different from the "cross-eyed stereogram" because one of them involves having two images and the other one has one image with two images hidden in it)

Really interesting. I never knew how those old magic eye images work.

It makes me wonder if the wall-eyed version could be useful for eye health.

I've often heard when doing computer work, you should focus on something 20 meters away for 20 seconds, every 20 minutes.

Doing a wall-eyed magic eye seems like the same thing physically, your focal point is much further away.

Would be cool to have some software that lets you overlap two coding windows, so you have a 3d terminal.

Re: I've acquired a new superpower

#572

Post by Shocka1 »

iforgotpassword wrote: post #187

We got a magic eye book when I was maybe 6 - some time early elementary school. After learning how to do it, and also trying it by crossing my eyes to see an "inverted" image, I started doing it whenever I saw some repeating pattern IRL. It was most interesting when it was slightly uneven, for example a fence with sloppily applied vertical planks. Doing the magic eye would make it seem like some of them are closer to…

When I read about Gauss basically inventing Arithmetic Progression at seven years old it gives me similar vibes. What led him to see a different way in adding the numbers 1 to 100? Surely he could have visualized it on his own in an abstract manner, but I tend to wonder if he had a similar enlightening experience like yours.

Re: I've acquired a new superpower

#573

Post by haswell »

Pxtl wrote: post #276
haswell wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the key is not "going cross-eyed" as much as it is relaxing your focus until the images merge. If you intentionally cross your eyes, it hurts. If you de-focus/relax your eyes until the images merge, it doesn't hurt.

That's more for traditional "magic eye" pattern stereograms where you want to relax your eyes to look off into the middle distance behind the subject instead of intensely focusing on something unnaturally close to your face.

For whatever reason this is what worked for me to replicate what the author was describing.

Re: I've acquired a new superpower

#576

Post by smusamashah »

MiddleEndian wrote: post #450
smusamashah wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a way to help yourself. Put the pair of images in front of your eyes. Bring your finger between your face and the image. Now look at your finger. Move your finger back and forth. While doing this, notice that at a particular distance, the images in background will perfectly overlap each other. That's your moment. Pull out your finger and look at that image. --- Should take lot less tries to learn doing it wi…

I knew about this cross-eyed trick, I've tried it with a finger too, I just cannot do it. I've only ever succeeded in one "magic eye" picture in my life as well. I have otherwise good vision, I can read small text from farther than most people (I didn't realize not everyone could read all the small letters on an eye test), I don't have a problem seeing things up close either, etc. but I lack the ability to properly c…

Another method is parallel eye though it's bit more complicated than the finger.

Zoom the images in front of your eyes so that they are little less than same width as your eyes.

Try to look behind/beyond the image, as in let your eyes loose/relax. Don't stare at the images instead see in that direction as if you are day dreaming.

Images will overlap at one point. If they don't completely perfectly overlap, reduce the zoom.

Once they overlap, focus the overlapped image.

---

Method 2: Use kitchen towel rolls

After putting those images in front of you, make a binocular out of used kitchen rolls.

Point each roll to each image.

There you go.

Re: I've acquired a new superpower

#577

Post by smusamashah »

soco wrote: post #65
Workaccount2 wrote: post #43

At a local bar they had a game machine, and if you got a high score on any of the games, your tab for the evening was free. One of the games was a "spot the differences" between two pictures with an ever decreasing timer for each round. Using this trick I was able to easily surpass the high score, and garner a crowd watching me perform this mind numbing feat. Probably my peak fame right there.

I can't overlap the images to save my life - they get like halfway there and that's it...

I have just figured that using kitchen towel rolls as a binoculars is the easiest way to do a parallel eye on these kind of images.

Try that.

Hold the rolls like binoculars where right roll is pointing at right image and left is at left image.

It's like a DIY VR headset where your brain/eyes only gets two same looking things to focus. No outside noise.

Re: I've acquired a new superpower

#578

Post by amingilani »

emmelaich wrote: post #445
xamuel wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ear rumbling: https://www.reddit.com/r/earrumblersassemble/ Eye shaking: https://old.reddit.com/r/Eyeshakers/ Some of us are born with small frenula of the tongue (or we undergo tongue-tie surgery as kids) and can thus perform Khecari mudra without the traditional self-mutilation used by yoga-masters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khecar%C4%AB_mudr%C4%81 This can be useful for cleaning tonsil stones or post-nasal dri…

Here's mine. Look at a patch of grass and ask someone to spot the ant or bug. It's quite difficult. But, if you let your eyes go out of focus, the ground will suddenly become alive with movement of all sorts of ants bugs and creepy-crawlies.

This is the first new thing I’ve learned from this thread. I’m going to try it out!

Re: I've acquired a new superpower

#579

Post by krnrrr »

thanatos519 wrote: post #538
einpoklum wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. When you cross your eyes, So, how exactly is that supposed to work? I can manage some de-focusing which makes me see 4 images rather than two. Is that part of it? Otherwise, I don't get it.

I used put my finger halfway to the object, look at my finger until the crossed images in the background converge, then remove my finger and let my eyes stay in the same spot. Now I can do it without the finger.

> until the crossed images in the background converge

that's the issue! like an OP i never was able to "converge" the images. for me it is phisically impossible: they are too far apart and never come closer. maybe because i have an astigmatism.

Post reply on HN