Remember these? 3D images

I remember when these stereograms were cool.  Apparently they translate to a computer screen as well:

Stare at the center and deliberately unfocus your eyes until the 3D effect appears.  I always thought these were fun.

Edit:  Could someone on staff fix my title typo, please and thank you?

One more.  Not quite as interesting, but I like the different graphic styles.

I've never been able to see these.

It's a sailboat.

It's a little harder on a phone but it works. On a tablet or monitor it's much easier.

My method is to relax my eyes and let them cross a little so the center of vision doubles.  Try holding your finger about 12"-16" in front of your face and relax until you see 2 fingers.  If you close your right eye the left finger should disappear and vice versa.  That's the feeling you're looking for.

Then try to do the same thing with the picture.  It's hard to describe but once that doubling happens, you may be able to uncross your eyes a little so the doubles overlap.  If you can avoid going back into focus when that happens, the 3D should snap into effect.

If you're on a phone you'll probably have to hold it about 6"-8" away.  If it doubles to the point you see a white bar down the middle you are crossing your eyes too much.

The top image is kind of a daffodil shape looking into the bell.  There is a spiral going down in the center.  The background is corrugated.

Appleseed said:

It's a sailboat.

It's a schooner.

Couldn't see these in the 90's, still can't see 'em now.

Hey, I'm with some of you on these. I never could see the image. I always wanted to, though.

That's really cool! Took a minute, but once you see it, you can look around in the image and even blink. The words are floating in front.

I like the second picture the best. Kind of a peeling sphere series in a tube.

I love those things.

You can use this same technique for finding the differences between two images.  Anything that isn't a perfect match "flickers". 

Those are really cool!!!  

The only way I was able to see these was to focus on the glass reflection of the framed print.  That worked instantly.

Still can't see a damn thing.

I'm convinced these were the ultimate con job. They paid some folks at the mall to stand there and say they could see a sailboat, then people wanted to fit in so they also claimed to see the sailboat. Eventually people bought into it hard enough to take one home, hang it on the wall and tell everyone they could see a damn sailboat.

A few people sat at home, laughed and counted their money.

This was the era where geese wearing blue bonnets was the pinnacle of home decor.

Like swimming, I don't really believe it to be a complete fake, although I'm not sure.  Like swimming, it is not something that I can do.

ShawnG said:

Still can't see a damn thing.

I'm convinced these were the ultimate con job. They paid some folks at the mall to stand there and say they could see a sailboat, then people wanted to fit in so they also claimed to see the sailboat. Eventually people bought into it hard enough to take one home, hang it on the wall and tell everyone they could see a damn sailboat.

A few people sat at home, laughed and counted their money.

This was the era where geese wearing blue bonnets was the pinnacle of home decor.

I was convince for years that these things were just an elaborate prank or social experiment. Like everyone just got together and decided to do a bit and it kind of took off.

Then one day I was walking by the mall kiosk that sold them, because I think there was some sort of federal statute that stated they could only be sold in mall kiosks, and one of them just hit me and I suddenly felt like my entire life up to that moment had been a lie.

I still can't see them voluntarily. Really the only wy is for me to just be happening to focus correctly when one pops into my field of vision. I keep returning to this thread and scrolling through and focusing around the room then looking back figuring sooner or later I'll be able to join the fun.

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

So you say they're covered by a Someone Else's Problem field?

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Or, in the case off Phoebe's Unicorn, a Sheild of Boringnress.

I will say, for the unseeing, that trying on a phone is really hard. Big bright computer monitor is best, but I printed these out on plain paper and it works that way also. Maybe I'll frame them.

I looked without my glasses this morning and my astigmatism makes it even weirder. Two 3D images that don't quite line up. 6D?

Don't give up! Don't focus hard, just look at the center and let your eyes cross a little. Make sure you're out in public, that helps.

In reply to ShawnG :

That's an easy enough hypothesis to test. Do you have a preference for how you would like to be proven wrong? While the first two have been more or less described, would you want us to PM you descriptions of the second two? Or perhaps you'd like to post a few where only you know where you pulled them from and what descriptions they were tagged with, and have us describe them?

How can we talk 90's mall sourced art without mentioning Thomas Kinkade?

3D pictures were never more than 50 feet from a Thomas Kinkade gallery

Duke said:

The top image is kind of a daffodil shape looking into the bell.  There is a spiral going down in the center.  The background is corrugated.

 

four observations here:

1. to me the spiral appeared to come up, not down.

2. intentionally crossing my eyes at the start made the 3D image appear more quickly than just relaxing my focus and waiting.

3. on my monitor, once i got the first 3D image, i used my scroll wheel to go to the next image and never lost the "3D focus".

4. once my eyes were at 3D focus, i could lean back from the monitor and the 3D appeared to stretch toward me.