3D Vision, Magic Eye, and Jell-O

[@SpontaneousProcess]

For the longest time, I believed that those autostereogram books in schools were an elaborate prank my classmates were pulling on me. They’d pretend to see an image where none exists. Now I see how committed to the bit they are! They wrote an entire book, published multiple papers, and created this entire video on the science of this thing that I still can’t observe!

[@user-sl6gn1ss8p]

they actually had to create this channel and all previous videos on it just to make it plausible

[@alexm7307]

That's what aphantasia feels like until you learn what aphantasia is!

[@Chayat0freak]

I'm medically unable to see these because while I have 2 mostly working eyes my brain does not do the stereoscopic 3d bit to my vision.

[@gamemeister27]

​@@Chayat0freakMy mom has the same thing! She can only see with one eye at a time, even though both work fine on their own

[@korne341]

There are tutorials online on how to train your eyes for seeing these... 😂

[@thesoupin8or673]

This was incredibly worth it even just for the image of a chameleon with glasses on. Delightful

[@ShumaBot]

I'm one of those people that can go cross eyed on demand and could always see the picture in magic eye pictures. What I never realized until it was shown here was that you can use the same method to instantly see every single difference in "spot the difference" puzzles. I tried it and it genuinely feels like a newly unlocked (if not particularly useful) superpower.

[@ZanHecht]

It's great for comparing two lists of items too

[@Doct0rLekter]

I never felt like I had to go cross eyed to see them. I just look and unfocus my eyes slightly until the image appears

[@iveharzing]

It's also great for comparing code with someone else who made the same code but their code works and yours doesn't. (speaking form experience lol)

[@tehweez]

Grew up blind in one eye so never got to see the magic images. A friend of mine gave me one of these books as a birthday gift on my 19th birthday knowing full well I couldn't see the pictures. We had a really really good laugh about it, and it's still one of the most thoughtful gifts I've ever gotten.

[@HedgehogGolf]

I love that the background is an autostereogram of your bird logo lol

[@fuzzyeuka7897]

You'd need to do multiple jello pours to get the magnets to sit at the right depth. Base layer, then magnet layer.

[@MrL314]

I have never been able to visualize these before, and this video is the first time I’ve ever been able to truly make the effect happen! My mind was absolutely blown seeing it really happen for the first time ever

[@Leadvest]

I think the important part of the oscillator array example is that the fields don't need to be overlapping for the phase shifts to be discernable. Sort of like how the rhythmic activation of neurons can communicate phase shift fields as signals without the ganglia physically overlapping.

[@Max-px7jn]

Yes...yes....indeed....

[@VoidPants]

THANK YOU!!! i’ve never gotten those magic eyes to work until now! thank you for explaining what’s going on instead of just a way to achieve the goal

[@TraeKryzer]

Oh my god! Thank you so much! I always thought the was something wrong with me, but you explained it so much better in 5 seconds than anyone ever has ❤

[@rojnx9]

It was a very nice touch that you hid your logo as a stereogram in the background, and you didn't even mention it.

[@thespeedyyoshi]

It’s very clever ^^. It also took me a while to see 😅

[@Gunbudder]

i LOVE these. my mom got me all the original books when they came out. i always stop and stare at them. i learned to unfocus my eyes at an early age so they were always very easy for me

[@spacelem]

I find wall-eyed stereograms much harder than cross eye-ed stereograms, mostly because it's much easier to move the two images further. The image at 7:00 is (I think) wall-eyed, but the two pictures are so big and far apart that I cannot get my eyes to point that far apart. The best I can do is go cross-eyed and get an inverted image (I could edit the image to swap them round, but my GIMP skills aren't the best).

[@ivanjermakov]

I had to minimize the video and walk away from my monitor for 2 meters to be able to cross eye enough

[@NoNameAtAll2]

​​@@ivanjermakovyou mean wall-eye? cross-eye is easy - just put a finger between you and the screen, works for anything

[@ivanjermakov]

@@NoNameAtAll2 no, cross eye. There is a limit on how close I can focus and that was not enough for two pictures to form the third one

[@yanikb.1312]

Again, this video is great and speaks to me in a special way. I had a very similar book from my parents when I was younger and had a lot of fun with them. I also figured the mistake-spotting technique out by myself because of that.

[@Flopsaurus]

Representing what they eyes see as a bunch of tiny magnets together takes some serious abstract thinking

[@JTCF]

Hell yeah, I love autostereograms. What helped me to understand how to use them is just regular stereograms, where you have two mages side-by-side with little differences, that when you go cross-eyed and line up those two images the image becomes 3d. After I mastered that, autostereograms were easy.

[@mishael1339]

I just imagined a stereogram of a blue robed and hatted mage and that made me very happy. Thank you for the delightful typo, no mistakes just happy little accidents :)

[@the_real_Kurt_Yarish]

I am convinced that I am physically incapable of viewing these magic picture images. Which, considering I have myopia, astigmatism, and a lazy eye, is probably true, lol.

[@kiwipomegranate]

Same, I’m blind in one eye so I probably can’t either 😭

[@gus3000spam]

I also have myopia, astigmatism and a lazy eye, and I learned this year (at 30), that I just don't have stereoscopic vision. Like, my eyes don't talk to each other, my brain cannot compare the images my eyes give him and figure out a 3D view. This may be your case, the test takes 10 seconds of you staring at a piece of glass, you can ask your ophthalmologist about it !

[@tylerbird9301]

i cant seem to see the images either but i've only got a prescription of like -0.75

[@olle1153]

@@tylerbird9301I have astigmatism and I can see them

[@YunxiaoChu]

@@gus3000spamcool

[@yari_dawg]

that brain is way too wrinkly to be mine

[@thespeedyyoshi]

I always felt like I had a super power when I learned how to do these magic eye things ^^ And now I can explain (some) of the physics behind it. Thanks! (Also I like the clever use of your bird constantly in the background if viewed by magic eye. ^^)

[@Queer_Gabe]

I just need to say that I get immensely joyful with these videos! ❤

[@zimbu_]

That's an excellent excuse to give chameleons tiny, wonky glasses. Kudos to the scientists on that one.

[@theBATgoesUPoh]

this really feels like unlocking a superpower. my only exposure to autostereograms before this were when i knew what the image was supposed to be, so i was able to just kind of let it happen. i knew i was capable of seeing the image, but i didn't know how. after watching this video, i can control it now

[@Fishman7]

I like how the "human" at 2:02 is just 3 birds in a trench coat.

[@xdarin_]

Finally, a use for my ability to cross-eye on command

[@DontYouDareToCallMePolisz]

yay, someone actually explained how to see magic eye images

[@gaelonhays1712]

The oscillator idea helped, thanks for mentioning it.

[@GuagoFruit]

Perks of the Cross eye method: you can focus any two images regardless of separation. Cons: images aren't typically designed to be viewed cross eyed so they're inverted in depth. Perks of the wall gazing/look through method: images are usually designed with this method in mind, so have correct depth. Con: you're limited to images narrower or equal to the width of your interpupillary distance. Also I found the cross eye method to be much easier to learn because the parallax distance (distance judged by crossing eyes) and focus distance (distance focused by eyeballs) is much smaller. And its perk of being able to view any two images is huge in comparison. It allows you to do "find the differences" for instance, even on big pictures, because the differences will flash out like a sore thumb.

[@glacialbae]

I also find that the look through method tends to hurt my eyes after a few minutes. I've always wondered if autostereograms could be made so that they stick out with the cross eye method. It's just so much easier for people to do.

[@livedandletdie]

@@glacialbae The fact that over 60% of people can't unfocus their vision in the first place intentionally, also contributes to the Cross eye method.

[@zacharynovak2180]

I had every magic eye book and I remember having to basically train myself to become walleyed/unfocus my vision. It’s possible to do on command even without the wall method but pretty difficult and slightly uncomfortable. Also can make people dizzy with the constant shifts in focus when trying to get the right amount of overlap in the image.

[@CXT14GamerMouse]

I am the exact opposite. Gazing into the distance is the easiest thing for me. I can do it on command and it does not feel different to looking a bit further away - no strain at all. Thanks for describing both methods! I always thought people were describing it wrong when they said they go cross-eyed. I will keep it in mind for the puzzles, even though it is very straining for me. Just trying it made me feel slightly sick right now.

[@iwanttwoscoops]

@@livedandletdieyeah the original post said that. Did you read it before responding?

[@Timmysthirdbirthday]

my grandparents had one of those magik eye books floating around for when grandkids would come over. i was the only one who ever figured it out that you just cross your eyes and it felt so simple to me but everyone else in my family thought my explanation was nonsense and the book was a scam

[@Draconis_Eltanin]

Wait, you're telling me they should pop out of the screen/page and not be carved in? Have I always looked at them wrong?

[@jogar0065]

It just another "mountain or valley" illusion

[@Atommagi]

@@jogar0065 It's not. There are two techniques. Either you cross your eyes as if you were looking at a close object, or you let them go parallel as if you were looking at a distant object. And a given picture has to be viewed with the correct technique.

[@lpnp9477]

Yes. They're designed to be embossed rather than engraved. I used to cross my eyes as a kid and enjoyed them being engraved for many years until someone taught me the correct method. Now I prefer them embossed.

[@NoNameNoWhere]

Well shit, I didn't know that! I'm finding that it's easy to lose the embossed image. But the engraved image gets "stuck" and I need to close one eye or look away to kill it.

[@MrSparkefrostie]

I think for years I had the expectation to see a picture, your explanation helped me see it, but now I have a headache from looking at it too much 🤣

[@smoceany9478]

im sorry for watching this im not a bird i just like the videos

[@glacialbae]

Get 'im, boys! 🦃🐔🐓🐣🐤🐥🐦🐧🦆🦅🕊️🦢🦉🦤🦩🦚🦜🦖

[@sebas31415]

The avian physicist is back!

[@josephlongfellow1244]

the background seen easily @4:37 is a stereogram of the Physics for the Birds logo

[@filoteo]

I haven’t even made it past the ad yet but AAAAAAHHHHH I love magic eye

[@瑠ちゃん]

Young Rival - Black is good has a music video where the whole thing is one of these. It's pretty cool.

[@christianprice4049]

Hey, thanks for another great video. Although, it was a little unexpected when I saw a very familiar view. Hope you enjoyed the hike!

[@uberthought]

I was with you right up to the impromptu eye surgery at the very end. :)

[@convincingmountain]

i don't know why but i kept seeing multiple sharks in the example - seeing two or three sharks layered on top of eachother, instead of the single one as in the original depth map. i managed to get it up to 5 duplicate sharks floating in the void before my eyes started to really hurt... what's up with that? is it because the image width (40px) was too low, or too high? so funky. great vid.

[@laserbean00001]

This vid is truly Physics for the birds. I'm sure this would help someone out there understand this but i'm not a bird.

[@El-Burrito]

I don't know if it's the same thing, but my favourite thing to do is play spot the difference, where you can put two almost identical pictures next to each other and then go cross eyed until they overlap and your brain gets used to it. It's then easy to look around at the image until it gets blurry, at which point you've spotted a difference. It's super cool cause you can use the same trick to look at two images that are slightly offset and it'll give a 3D effect, much in the same way this does. Edit: And I proved I left my comment before finishing the video since you do end up mentioning that

[@saschb]

I love your jello magnets, even if they didn’t turn out as planned ❤

[@kalelsoffspring]

I never understood why people liked those black head removal videos, but sit me down with some jello magnet removal for a couple hours and I think I'd be just fine hehe

[@YYCUrban]

Well this was great being legally blind in 1 eye lol. My whole life ive never been able to see 3d or certain visual illusions, because I only use 1 eye

[@tiredko-hi-]

My comrade! Edit: though I'm not legally blind, I'm just blind in that eye.

[@techneti_um]

Right here with you

[@kiwipomegranate]

Same here!! My depth perception is shit lmaoo (also btw the definition of legal blindness is both eyes so you can’t technically be “legally blind in one eye,” don’t worry I said the same thing, it’s on some official accommodation documents too 😭😭)

[@DaMedicWhoSezNi]

I love the picture you drew of the “human”

[@Chocomint_Queen]

One thing you neglected to mention is that the "walleyed" and "crosseyed" technique, while they can both _see_ the image, see it _inverted._ Most magic eye books are designed for the walleyed method, where you focus past the image, and so you see it pop out. But if you use the cross-eye method, where you focus in front of the image, you'll see it sunken in, instead; a shark-shaped divot in a floating plane. Some are designed for the cross-eye method, though, so then the walleye method gets it inverted. This is because, obviously, going walleyed diverges your vision, moving your left vision left and your right vision right, while going crosseyed crosses it, moving your left vision right and your right vision left.

[@alistairlacaille]

Didn't know if this would work on a computer screen or not. Paused the video, and yeah, sure enough... Never had a problem seeing the image; it just takes a minute to decipher what it is because I'm basically following the outline of it until I can make sense of the thing in its entirety.

[@Stratelier]

One of the key differences between different autostereograms are whether they're designed for cross-eyed or diverged viewing, because they will yield opposite interpretations of depth. Also crucially, for diverged viewing there is a certain limit to the "tile width" beyond which your eyes' gazes wouldn't converge to any point at all, which (while not impossible) is far more difficult to achieve.

[@GLITCH_-.-]

next time you do one of these images, you should invert the depth-map. all your images have imprints instead of raised details.

[@erictheepic5019]

The only way that Magic Eye things have ever 'worked' for me is in the way that they successfully make my eyes hurt and give me a headache. As for the advice given: Going cross-eyed makes my vision blurry; I can't go wall-eyed; putting my nose to the screen doesn't result in double vision; reflections on my screen appear 'double' and I can't focus them into one image (strabismus, I guess). I'm pretty sure I'm just screwed, and so I have to sit here and stew in my frustration and anger while watching this video. Yippee!

[@shythevans]

"Its a Sailboat!" - One of the clerks movies, I think.

[@plackt]

I’m the same - can’t separate fixation (vergence) and focus (accommodation), so can’t see MEIs. Very annoying as a stereovision researcher, as my colleagues can usually “free fuse” my stimuli to see what they look like in 3D.

[@edbop]

Ah man it is funny how you forget about things and when you are reminded it takes you right back. These were all the rage back in late 80s early 90s

[@adissentingopinion848]

Its also REALLY IMPORTANT to be wearing your glasses OR be near/farsighted with the image close/far from you, respectively. I used to only see these on my computer screen before I got reading glasses, and now I can do it on my phone. Since it relies on maintaining visual focus while moving your eyes, it often got too blury for my brain to lock in the 3d.

[@Asterism_Desmos]

These are very interesting, I thought it was the angle of viewing and not that there would be a technique OF viewing that unlocks the image.

[@Asterism_Desmos]

Also, this is now neurology and psychology for the birds lol

[@zac9311]

The shark one was awesome. Once i had it i could look around freely without losing it, and it really looked 3d

[@JohnDlugosz]

I notice you have an autosterogram as a background image in your title cards. Nobody else seems to be talking about it. Anyway, there is a cursed Perl script that generates autostereograms using ASCII characters, of an image you pass as an argument. Only thing is, the output is a functioning Perl script that works the same as the original.

[@sordesmax6238]

6:10 your random dots stereograms don't work, images are too far from each other. with bigger one I can overlap only third part of images.

[@DareChimera]

7:20 omfg this made me feel something.

[@Arithryka]

11:08 clearly the book itself is an autostereogram and there are slight differences between the duplicate pages :P

[@youtubersingingmoments4402]

Love the physics and all, but can you start an ASMR channel? You have the most calming voice.

[@Amonimus]

To explain how I thought it works, one side is a photo of an object slightly rotated to the left and the other is to the right. In stereogram they are overlayed and slightly shifted horizontally. If both eyes look at overlapping image at the same angle as the rotations, they will overlap where they shoukd be and show an object visible from three sides. I never understood why stereograph look like that though.

[@Tips_7384]

I love your content, keep it up! Unfortunately I still couldn't see the 3d images after any of the examples.

[@Zeero3846]

If you wear glasses, it can sometimes help if you take them off or put them on depending on how far away the image is when it "clicks".

[@arcticpenguin.]

I love physics and I was wondering if/what your college degree was/is? Im going into college soon and I was wondering

[@alittlefella985]

I can only get the ones with two images next to each other to work, how do you do the ones where it's a single one?

[@lunafoxfire]

For people having trouble, the further away the images are, the easier it is, since you need to cross your eyes less to make them overlap.

[@daanroelofs119]

Oh my God, I thought I was the only one who used this to do the spot the difference puzzles insanely fast

[@ClassicallyBC]

I enjoy stereograms. I have moved from puzzles into biology. Using two eyes for references. Fun maneuver for two people.

[@nyther]

I managed to do the cross eye on demand thing quite easily and I did managed to form the third image in the center but I never saw anything in the autostereogram, in the "find the difference" image I saw the differences alternating between each side. I wonder if I really have a depth perception issue... 🤔

[@BuckFudweiser]

My 2nd grade teacher had one of these on his wall. I had the toughest time figuring it out, but when I did.... Oh boy.

[@Xld3beats]

Focus on something far behind the screen, then slowly try to focus on reading the screen. It takes some practice to hold your focus where you want it, but when you "spot the difference" you'll see these weird sharp/fuzzy spots, more noticeable if you wobble the screen

[@adrien5568]

No matter how hard I tried, I saw nothing other than a colour splash.

[@adityachaudhari1579]

This might be the only video where i give myself multipe small scale headaches on purpose

[@AMan-xz7tx]

10:45 you're right, shifting frequencies wouldn't work, but OFFSETTING their on-off cycles would be exactly like the stereotypical depiction of 3d sonar and would work perfectly (especially if the LEDs fade out instead of just being ON or OFF)

[@PotatoVariety]

"Some people can do this on command" Yeah... I used to enjoy a book like this when I was a kid XD

[@pmnt_]

Now I want to try building an autostereogram with the "solution" depth map as tiling picture.

[@congruentcrib]

I still can’t see these. When shown the answer, I can’t see the image. The one at 6:58 … even knowing what I’m looking for I can’t find it.

[@elton8135]

i saw the shark, after like 30 mins of trying all i could imagine, i put my face like 2 cm away from my 16 inch screen (the image was all the screen) when i tried to see it again after a while i had to try like 10 minutes, even with my prevous experience of where to position myself, and having finished your video, pls help i'm so sad i couldn't see anything else despite my best efforts. how close should the image be? how big should it be? am i trying to focus my vision to a further place than the screen? do your eyes don't put the image out of focus when trying to see a different depth than the image?

[@lorlimann]

Often times you‘ll find autostereograms in scientific publications of inorganic chemistry depicting crystal structures of molecules

[@trysta73]

I can do side-by-side 3d photos without a problem but still can't seem to make these work. Rarely I can squeeze some depth information out of them with a lot of effort but it's always random garble that doesn't form an image so much as like the depth equivalent of noise or a repeating pattern. Briefly did get the shark, but inverted, but I think that's the closest I've gotten with these.

[@yjr4df758]

I perceive the depth map backwards, and then sometimes get an involuntary muscle reaction when I lose the illusion, I can't even move that muscle on its own voluntarily. I feel some parallax, though it's a static image, probably my brain assuming it will see parallax, but not actually seeing it.

[@JohnLeePettimoreIII]

1. make clear gelatin with less water to make it more rubbery. 2. lay down a thin layer and let it harden. 3. place magnets. 4. carefully pour more concentrated gelatin over the placed magnets and let it harden. 5. profit.

[@Cimera42]

Not sure why, but when I look at the shark picture at the start, I sometimes see 5, 3 or 1 shark... Any ideas why?

[@rsilva918]

Great video as always , but man you needed a better title ,maybe the logo on the miniature , I took 2 days for to click because i didnt recognize the channel.

[@Ganerrr]

i have yet to be able to see a single one of these illusions :

[@hoodedkupo8537]

I followed this algorithm to try and generate my autostereogram and all that happens in the moment it hits a bright pixel the rest of the image just tears. (since we're grabbing from the pixel directly to the left for more than 40 pixels therefore everything past that point is the same pixel value)

[@WizardOfArc]

This is totally my trick to “spot the difference” 😁

[@elise3517]

I still can't see them, but learning how they work was at least fun T~T

[@GeofreySanders]

06:54 Ack, that was way too big to get the details. Hadda put it in a photo editor and subtract pixel values.

[@tiredko-hi-]

KZbin recommended a random-dot stereogram video to me. You can imagine my confusion when all I could see was static since I'm blind in my other eye.

[@belgaer4943]

I was usually able to figure out a magic eye image but it took a looooot of squinting and crossing my eyes to get there. Wish someone had just told me to cross my eyes just enough to line up the horizontal patterns.

[@astrodoc1]

Too bad I have a lazy eye. My left eye is always suppressed so there is no way for me to converge the images. I only see one image out of my right eye, and if I want to try to see out of my left eye, my brain suppresses the right eye to see out of the left. Unfortunately will never be able to see one of these things, or 3D movies.

[@StillConfusing]

I wonder if the mega difference between my glasses prescription is what causes me to not be able to see these

[@sadiesaurus54]

I truly could not get the random dot stereogram to show up, even using paper to block the opposite square so each eye really only could see their own square. It's like my eyes can't look at the same thing at the same time, like I'm just switching back and forth very quickly. Maybe it's just when I think too hard about it 🤷‍♀️

[@NoNameNoWhere]

As a kid, I was able to make an imahe appear within 3 seconds of turning each page. A while later, when I looked at more images, I couldn't make the hidden image appear. It took maybe 10 or so minutes? Now, about 10 seconds per image maybe.

[@DareChimera]

Crazy thing is, when that static background is being used, you can see a 3d image by crossing your eyes even if that wasn’t the plan

[@GeofreySanders]

it was the plan - 3d shape is an outline of the channel logo

[@Timmysthirdbirthday]

you rock

[@absurdshitposter7705]

I can't see the autostereogram is something wrong w my eye

[@agargamer6759]

I love stereograms!

[@ophello]

I love maghlkic eye.

[@plackt]

As a stereovision researcher, it’s incredibly frustrating that I can’t free fuse to see Magic eye illusions, or my own random dot stereogram stimuli.

[@warriorsabe1792]

Unfortunately, I can't go cross-eyed without also completely defocusing, and my monitor doesn't have specular reflections to focus on, so I couldn't see any of the illusions really (except for the jitter-framed one)