I Am Beside Myself

The Wheatstone Stereoscope

Stereography is even older than the art of photography itself. Long before the development of anaglyphic methods of fooling your brain into seeing depth where there is none, clever inventors were figuring out ways to create the illusion of the third dimension with two-dimensional media. In 1834 Charles Wheatstone invented the first stereoscope, an apparatus that used an arrangement of lenses and mirrors to view a pair of illustrations drawn from slightly different perspectives thus creating the illusion of depth.

19th Century Hand-held Stereoscope

Soon less bulky and complex stereoscopes were developed which made use of stereograms, or stereopairs, a pair of images taken from the respective position of the left and right eye and presented side-by-side. These forerunners of the Viewmaster* were bleeding-edge entertainment technology in the 19th century. While Grandma enjoyed viewing the beauty of Paris in 3D, Grandpa enjoyed viewing the beauties of Paris in 3D. Stereographic French postcards were all the rage in the wondrous century before the invention of pay-per-view.

The stereogram sat in a holder at the end of a sliding bar which was used to focus the image. A partition divided the magnifying lenses through which the viewer looked. The 3D image appeared with crystal clarity and no color distortion.

Stereopair Collectibles

 But one does not need a special viewer to view stereopairs. There is a method called, freeviewing and all it requires is some patience and practice. With the first freeviewing technique the viewer focuses his or her gaze at a point beyond the stereopair until the two side-by-side images become one and a 3D image emerges. This is the technique for viewing SIRDS-- Single Image Random Dot Stereograms, the crazy static-like pictures of dots and patterns that conceal hidden images of 3D bunnies and dolphins that everybody claims they can see but most people can't.

The next technique is the cross-eyed viewing technique. It is actually pretty self-explanatory. One crosses the eyes so that the left eye views the right image and the right eye views the left image. The 3D image will appear at the point in front of the stereopair where the lines of sight converge. Perhaps this anaglyphic illustration will make it clearer. Please don your red/cyan glasses for the full effect.

Like your mother said, if you keep doing that your face will stick that way.

There is another technique that is similar, but requires the eyes to diverge, creating the 3D image behind the stereopair. All these techniques are difficult to master, stupid to look at and cause eye-fatigue and headaches. Just invest in a dang Viewmaster already.

*When I was a kid my best friend David had the Star Trek "Omega Glory" Viewmaster reel. I coveted that thing. I could have sat and gazed for hours at Captain Kirk and Co. in 3D. The shots of the two starships hanging in space inspired my later 3D efforts. What a great memory!

The toy Enterprise and home-brew asteroid that grace the top of a bookcase in my office