Essay 6.2 Stereo Images on the Web

An early stereoscopic card of the Charles Street Mall, Boston Common, by John P. Soule, c. 1860.

There’s a good chance you’ve encountered a “Magic Eye” book of autostereograms, or seen a Magic Eye poster, or placemat, or coffee mug. But did you know that autostereograms, as well as other types of stereo images, are all over the internet, too? The number of stereograms available online probably numbers in the thousands, and they’re all available for your enjoyment absolutely free!

If you want to dive whole-hog into the three-dimensional world online, check out the The 3D Stereo Photography WebRing, a collection of over 200 sites dealing with all sorts of topics related to stereo vision. Many (most?) of these sites are run by amateur Web designers, so the quality of the sites is uneven. But the Web ring makes for some interesting surfing.

For a slightly more professional online experience, go to Magic Eye How to See 3D, a site created by the author of a book that discusses potential “visual health” benefits of Magic Eye viewing. If you experience difficulty with the stereograms activity (Activity 6.3), try this site’s tutorial on how to view stereograms. Other interesting links on this site are given below.

• An excellent tutorial on how to view stereograms
• Galleries of single image stereograms, wallpaper stereograms, stereo photographs, and stereo drawings (several of these are featured in the Stereograms activity; for the stereo photos and stereo drawings pages, you need to click on the 3D Gallery link at the bottom of the page)
• An essay on potential health benefits of stereogram viewing

Finally, if you just want a quick stereogram experience, surf to Magic Eye, Inc.’s stereogram of the week. As the name would suggest, a new stereogram gets posted here weekly.