The left page of an open book contains incomprehensible text.
The right page of an open book contains incomprehensible text.
A closer look reveals a small dot on the bottom middle of each page, each with a small arrow pointing towards the other.

By looking through the book and aligning these two dots in your vision, the garbled text on the overlapping pages springs into focus and stays in focus as long as your eyes stay unfocused.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 16 2008

Stereo Text With Hidden Truth http://www.lce.hut....ikalliom/stereo.txt
[Amos Kito, Feb 16 2008]

More about ASCII stereograms http://archive.muse...rg/3d/ascii-3d.html
[jutta, Feb 16 2008]

JavaScript stereogram generator http://www.prosanit...tereogramIntro.html
[jutta, Feb 16 2008]

Another stereogram generator http://www.worsleys...n/stereo/maker.html
Without the focus aid at the bottom, which makes it a little harder. [jutta, Feb 16 2008]

It would be great if this stereoscription were an otherwise ordinary text, message buried within.
-- Amos Kito, Feb 16 2008


I often had this experience while reading Remeberance of Things Past. My eyes would blur and my mind would create exciting text content in the fog. Akin to sensory deprivation halucinations I suspect.
-- WcW, Feb 16 2008


Are you suggesting that we would enjoy a whole book of these exciting illusions?
-- WcW, Feb 16 2008


I offer no suggestions...only musings, and after trying out [Amos Kito]'s link I think that each book should come with a bottle of Aspirin.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 16 2008


Stenostereoscription?
-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Feb 16 2008


I just tried to make this work, I think. The idea at its simplest, as I understand it, is not a stereogram, just missing letters from two otherwise identical pages of text.

"I v n o | n e t r" = "Inventor", for instance.

I'm pretty good at stereo viewing, but it didn't work well.

Working in text, the first problem turns out to be that not all letters are the same width, so they can't be replaced with standard spaces. The text doesn't line up unless the gaps are exactly as wide as the missing letters.

Like this a-way, dig?
L ke t is a- ay, di ?
Although that depends on your text viewer.

I then took a screenshot of the text, pasted two images into Paint side-by-side, and cut out every other word from the left image, then did the same in the right image, for the alternate words. I then crossed eyes and looked at that. Man, that hurt! There was no part of the image in common where I was looking, and I couldn't keep the right amount of cross at all.

To make this work, I think, there would need to be identical kerning (character width) to/for the missing letters, and some text in common to both sides, maybe a third of the text. Which would make a single page of the text less incomprehensible.

I'm not experimenting any more. Ow!
-- baconbrain, Feb 16 2008


I'm working on it, I...oh you meant...never mind.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 16 2008


This won't work.

If I understand correctly, you want to use stereoscopy to merge two pages which each contain half the image, yes?

It won't work. Stereoscopy relies on your eyes being able to find corresponding parts of the two images; your brain then does the necessary superposition, and percieves depth from the small disparity between the two images.

If the two images are not similar, your brain won't merge them - they'll dissociate as soon as you look away from the 'dot'.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 17 2008


I disagree. The images displayed in the links do not dissociate as I look away from the dot.
If two combined images produce the letter A for instance, the fact that they form a recognizable shape should keep the eyes focused on the alphabet the brain knows.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 17 2008



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