CompuServe Messages

Adam, I know how you feel. I've read about SIRDS's (Those 3-D posters that look like Picasso threw up on them) for years, yet was unable to "see" them. I felt terrible. Then one day, I tried again, for a full minute this time. And IT HAPPENED. The feeling was dizzying! Here are some tips: first of all, look for a nicely-framed SIRDS, front glass and all. Then, get something small and bright, like a white pen for example. Stand about 5 feet away and hold the pen vertically against your chest. Concentrating on the pen's reflection, adjust your eyes until the two pen images merge into one. Hold this position for a few seconds, then move your gaze up just a bit. If you're lucky, your eyes won't lose the artificial focal point and you'll see the SIRDS's scene in all its 3-D beauty. One final note: if the SIRDS looks like blue-and-white marbelized paper, the 3-D scene of, say, dolphins will look like blue-and-white marbelized dolphins. This may sound obvious, but part of what kept me from seeing the 3-D scene all those years what that I expected the image to resolve into a grey-scale rendering similar to all those 3-D images I'd ever produced. I had no idea that the objects would be covered in textures similar to the patterns of light seen on underwater objects. Blaq!