Thursday 29 November 2007

3D Magic Eye - A different form of interactivity?

I started thinking about the old idea of magic eye images. These are in a way very interactive as they require the viewer to focus in a particular way in order to receive a 3d image. It is quite a different form of interactivity as it doesn't require much physical involvement by the user, just a long time staring. I was thinking how interesting it is that the way you look at these images (with a blurred focus) is quite similar to when you are in deep day dream, or completely immersed in a painting or landscape. I can't think of any other form of interactivity where you get this completely uninterrupted experience, where you can almost switch off. Perhaps I'm wrong, perhaps video games have a similar way of drawing the player into an almost "dream like" state.
I remember the first time I was introduced to one of these magic eye images, and how eager I was to be able to see the 3d image. I got really frustrated after 20 minutes when I still couldn't see it, but when i eventually did it truly seemed like magic.

Anyway just out of curiosity I started looking into how these images are made and came across this flash website where you can make your own 3d magic eye image, you draw the content that you want to appear in 3d.

Try for yourself here

Here is one I made

Maybe one could expand on this idea of an image becoming alive without the viewer taking any action, either by speech recognition or movement sensors. I like the idea of something being interactive yet time consuming or in other words the viewer having to take some time over a particular piece before moving on. Perhaps sound could also help in setting a particular pace.

I also like the way these images often have patterns made of smaller images that gives clues to the larger 3D image. In the above example the roses are a metaphor for love giving a clue to the 3D image being a heart.

3 comments:

DAN STONEMAN (DJ / Producer / Designer) said...

Hey Sita, I have a great book on illusions - i will bring it in on Monday!

i think its called eye of illusions but let me check that!

SV said...

cheers Dan!

Claire said...

wow. Thats's really impressive. I always thought they were a top secret invention that couldn not be replicated at home, but I can read yours! well done!

Brilliant idea for mental interaction too.