Spot the Difference.

1. brian t
   June 10th, 2007 at 8:28 am

   Yes - and this is the same technique used to view stereoscopic pictures. In that case the two pictures have the same elements displaced laterally, giving you the 3D effect. Try some of the examples on Wikipedia’s “Stereoscopy” page.

   In this case it’s a total mismatch of the elements in each picture, and the “glow” is the effect of your brain trying (and failing) to place them in a 3D field of vision. Eek…

2. Argonauta
   June 10th, 2007 at 8:29 am

   It works. It’s the same visual trick that is used to create that kind of 3d old fashioned magic eye effect on images with patterns (www.magiceye.com).

3. gail
   June 10th, 2007 at 8:36 am

   I can’t cross my eyes long enough to get the effect.

4. Jocelyn
   June 10th, 2007 at 8:47 am

   Same here. I can see the third image, but can’t focus on it long enough to see the effect.

5. Dan
   June 10th, 2007 at 8:50 am

   holy crap it does! the things ‘pop’ out

6. Scott Carney
   June 10th, 2007 at 9:59 am

   I second Dan’s comment. “Holy Crap, it does”.

7. AM
   June 10th, 2007 at 10:09 am

   wow, it does! 3d effect. how marvellous.

8. mobius8
   June 10th, 2007 at 10:12 am

   heh, had to reduce the image size in Photoshop, because my eyes are to close to eachother now it works

9. James Schend
   June 10th, 2007 at 11:21 am

   Quicker to just open the image in Paint.NET or Photoshop Elements or whatever, copy half into another layer, set the layer transparency to 50%, and overlap the two.

   I say this because things involving crossing my eyes NEVER work for me. That stupid “magic eye” craze a few years back was like torture… never in my life have I seen one of those.

10. gail
    June 10th, 2007 at 11:27 am

    Smart idea, James. I get sick if I cross my eyes.

11. Mr Pudifoot
    June 10th, 2007 at 12:12 pm

    Oh, yeah, look.
    It’s a sailboat!

12. Frank
    June 10th, 2007 at 12:15 pm

    For really really great stereoscopic images visit this site:

    http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/display/777504

    Many of these pictures are marvellous.

13. medea
    June 10th, 2007 at 1:21 pm

    it works! even for small differences like changes in color or shading in certain areas like the line beneath the light blue circle on the upper right.

14. Ali S.
    June 10th, 2007 at 2:27 pm

    My eyes!! @_@

15. John
    June 10th, 2007 at 7:38 pm

    I did that when I was a kid on all the spot the difference panels in the comics. Works great!

16. tom b
    June 10th, 2007 at 9:50 pm

    The cross-eye thing works. And being able to do that is useful in my work (Chemistry) because sometimes journals publish stereo pairs of 3D renderings of molecules.

17. Chris
    June 11th, 2007 at 2:17 pm

    aspirin please?

18. Tinderbox
    June 12th, 2007 at 1:49 am

    James, sounds like you were trying to hard with the “magic eye” pictures. It’s better to see them when you relax, rather than trying to see them. I can usually decipher them in 5-10 seconds. With those its easier NOT to cross your eyes.

19. Mitch
    June 13th, 2007 at 9:43 am

    wow, works perfectly

20. Bobo
    June 15th, 2007 at 2:55 am

    Ouch. This just made me realise how crap I am at crossing my eyes.

    James… I suck at those magic eye things as well. I could stand in front of one for hours like William in Mallrats and I wouldn’t see a damn thing.

21. Monster-Maniac
    July 24th, 2007 at 11:01 pm

    Wow, it works! I could never solve those things. Thanks!

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