If you’re successful, a three-dimensional image should appear in the patterned stereogram. Although Magic Eye puzzles were all the rage in the 90s, the idea had been around for decades before then.

On Wednesday, Magic Eye, those tricky 2D patterns with the 3D images hidden inside, turns 15. And we couldn’t in good conscience throw Waldo a party without at least mentioning Magic Eye.

Magic Eye's granddaddy was the random dot stereogram invented by neuroscientist and psychologist Bela Julesz in 1959 to test people’s ability to see in 3D. Julesz would generate one image of ...

Ah, the 1990s. It was a simpler time, when the web was going to be democratic and decentralised, you could connect your Windows 95 PC to the internet without worrying much about it being compromise… ...

Clint notes that the images in Magic Eye books were much more sophisticated than the software's output because they used ray-traced 3D imagery with gradients and shadows, not just the basic shapes ...

Magic Eye tubes were popular as tuning guides on old-school radio gear. However, the tubes, the 6U5 model in particular, have become rare and remarkably hard to come by of late.

When two images are laid on top of one another in just the right way, our brain can see one pattern as being "behind" the other, even though they're on the same plane. This is the same trick 3D ...

That’s because the illusion is an autostereogram, “two-dimensional (2D) images with repeating patterns that hide an underlying three-dimensional (3D) image,” according to Vision and Eye Health.

While helping my mother clean out her attic, I found boxes of toys and books from my childhood. Among the stuffed animals, board games and Nancy Drew books were my two “Magic Eye” books.Back ...