Stereograms are 3D images that have another dimension hidden within them. To unlock that dimension you need to trick your brain to either to make your eyes focus either beyound the image or before the image.
How to See Stereograms?
When we usually look at anything, a picture, a cd or anything we focus on the object. This is how we have trained our eyes from the time we are born. Using this method we do not see the third dimension in Stereograms.
There are two methods where by we can see the hidden 3D images in sterograms.
One is the Parallel Method and the other is the Cross Eyed Method.
The Parallel Method:
Is also known as the divergence or Magic Eye method, the point of focus is moved beyound the image. Basically it is to look through the image and focus at a point beyound. The line of site is sort of parallel when approaching the image hence its named this. When you use this method the muscles inside your eye that control the focusing lens relax and lengthen.
The Cross-Eyed Method:
The Cross Viewing method, can be enabled by focusing your eyes at a point before the image in the middle of it. This way the line of sight from each of your eyes cross in front of the image. When you use this method the muscles inside your eye that control the focusing lens contract strongly and shorten.
A Couple of my Favorite Stereograms:
I have tried staring at a Stereogram for hours and never managed to see it. Until my friend Warrel actually took the trouble of teaching me to do it. The first Stereogram is the one below.
The first time I saw it, I was zapped stared at it for 5 minutes and kept on doing it. Looking at the world in 3D is so much fun.
Here are some more that I liked
Source of Methods to View Stereograms
Sterograms In India:
Sterograms with Aum symols are available in India. These sterograms help in meditation, this kind of Mediatation is knows as Pranava Yantra.
It seems if you look into the sterograms for 3 – 5 minutes everyday they can have many beneficial effects such as:
Relax your mind
Improve concentration
Balance Emotions and Reduce Mental Tension
Enjoy Freedom from Worries and Anxiety
Cure headache, insomnia, high blood pressure, depression and other stress realated problems.
Indepth Learning to See Stereograms:
Putting your Nose Into it (Parallel Method)
The Reflection Method (Parallel Method)
The Single Finger Method (Cross-Eyed Method)
Stereograms Online:
Wonderful collection of Optical Illusions! (Must See)
About Stereograms:
Stereogram was discovered by Charles Wheatstone in 1838. He found an explanation of binocular vision which led him to construct a stereoscope based on a combination of prisms and mirrors to allow a person to see 3D images from two 2D pictures.
Stereograms were re-popularized by the creation of autostereogram on computers, where an 3D image is hidden in a single 2D image, until the viewer focuses the eyes correctly. The Magic Eye series is a popular example of this. Magic Eye books refer to autostereograms as stereograms, leading most people to believe that the word stereogram is synonymous to autostereogram.
Salvador Dalí created some impressive stereograms in his exploration in a variety of optical illusions.