Abstract Thursday: Organic Stereogram

Ingeborg has chosen “Organic” as today’s abstract theme.

This blip started off as a photo of the berries on our pyracantha shrub. Then I remembered that on my PC I have a freeware program called “Artistry”, and I discovered that it includes a random dot stereogram generator – so of course I had to have a go!

Random dot stereograms were “all the rage” several years ago, although apparently they’ve been known about since 1919. They depend on your ability to align your eyes on a point either a little in front of the photo or a little behind it, whilst maintaining focus on the photo itself – not the easiest thing to do. (I find it easiest to do the former, going slightly cross-eyed, but with this stereogram it actually looks best with your eyes aligned on a point behind the image.) If you view this blip large (not essential but it should be easier) and manage to do this visual trick, you’ll see a word magically appear in front of or behind the dots: if you can do it, add a comment and say what the word is – see if you can be the first!

(If you align your eyes behind the image, the word will seem to be in front of the rest of the image; if you align them in front of it (ie, go cross-eyed) the word will seem to be behind it.)

To succeed, you not only have to be able to make your eyes do the trick, you also need to have pretty good vision in each eye and the ability to see in stereo so my apologies to any blippers who aren’t lucky enough to have these. If you use reading glasses, it’s best to wear them whilst having a go.

(Note: There's no evidence that you can harm your eyes by having a go at this - but if your eyes start to feel tired then you may wish to give them a rest!)

PS. My Editor looks at my blips on her tablet, and tells me that she finds it helpful to hold the tablet in such a way as to get something reflecting slightly on it - the mirror-like reflection is behind the screen (in the same way as the reflection in a normal mirror) so she starts by slightly vaguely looking at that as it helps her to align her eyes at that distance.