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Comment by johnthedebs | Hacker News Reader

As a kid, I got a Magic Eye book and learned to see it by crossing my eyes (ie, focusing in front of the screen). I thought it was pretty interesting when I realized that I was seeing all the images inverted ("peaks" were "valleys" and vice versa) due to the way I was focusing. Alas, I never was able to see the images "correctly".

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It's funny because even if you do the Magic Eye pictures "correctly" (focusing past them) you can still get funky images by going too far and locking the surrounding pattern a second time. If I remember right the first time I did this was on a heart picture (similar to [0]), which ends up looking like a big puffy W stacked on top of a slightly larger puffy W :D

[0] https://i0.wp.com/www.magiceye.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/1...

Thanks that's one of the beautifully crafted magic eye images, bring me back memories about 20 years ago when it was a craze.

Wasn't it a craze around 1992?

I think I just locked the pattern also a third time where it looks like pillars but I’m not sure if I saw it correctly.

When I first looked at this picture I saw the W pattern and then blinked and suddenly saw the intended pattern.

When you lock on the non-intended ones it feels somehow like a secret/forbidden path you shouldn’t go, like consuming drugs.

Are you sure that's supposed to be a heart? I see the three peaks of a "W" as well -- I think it's supposed to be a tulip, no? That also matches the background theme.

Yep, well at least 98% sure anyway. But you're right, that 'second level' image does look a lot like a tulip, much better description than what I said about W's :) And of course this led me to try zooming out a bit and going for level 3+... kinda feels like I'm looking down at the top of a strangely shaped wedding cake, which would also go nicely with the flowers and heart theme. Thanks for giving me an excuse to take another look!

If you see 3 peaks you went too far - which is really easy to do on mobile. I had to be careful to go only "once deep".

The background is flowers, but the hidden image is most certainly the classic heart shape.

You can also cross your eyes the other way and make the pattern in a MagicEye pop the other way (in vs out, or vice versa)

Instead of crossing your eyes to focus in front of the image, you have to uncross them and focus on something behind the image. Put your finger about six inches in front of your face and then look at the horizon. If the horizon is in focus you should see two fingers.

Focusing behind is much easier because you can get yourself started by focusing on an actual object.

Focusing in front can be done by focusing on an actual object too? Many people e.g. put a finger between them and the picture and then remove it.

The finger method interferes more with the third image in my experience.

Same -- much harder to get them to go the other way. I'm surprised that cross-eyed random dot stereograms never took off; so much easier to do.

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