Prompt Cast
The History and Popularity of Magic Eye Illusions
TLDR Magic Eye illusions, based on the concept of binocular vision, have been popular since the mid-19th century. They gained widespread popularity in the 90s, but competition and fading interest caused the original company to sell its majority stake. However, Magic Eye illusions can still be used to correct vision issues and are created using grayscale shading and repeating patterns.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
Magic Eye Illusions are posters with seemingly random patterns that, when you relax your eyes and look beyond the poster, reveal a hidden 3D image.
04:40
Magic Eye Illusions are based on the concept of binocular vision, which allows us to see one complete picture with depth perception by combining the images from both eyes.
09:25
The stereoscope was the first version of the Magic Eye illusion and became increasingly smaller and more portable over time, leading to its popularity in the mid-19th century.
13:55
The invention of stereoscopic images helped to convince congressmen that the Yellowstone area was worth preserving, and stereograms became popular in the 90s due to the availability of stereo cameras.
18:56
The inventor of stereoscopic images showed that our brain creates the illusion of depth by comparing two separate images, leading to the creation of magic eye posters in the 1970s, which eventually became popular in the 90s due to advertising.
23:49
The creator of the magic eye illusions partnered with a Japanese company called Tenyo, who licensed and published books based on the magic eye, eventually renaming it "magic eye" because they thought the original name was stupid.
28:31
The Magic Eye illusions became a hit in Japan and then in America, with multiple books being released and various companies wanting to license the images for their products.
32:58
Magic Eye illusions started to gain popularity and were used for various purposes, including being featured in a book and being licensed for products, but competition and the fading interest in the fad caused the original company to sell its majority stake and the illusions to continue as Magic Eye.
37:50
Magic Eye illusions can be used to help correct vision issues such as strabismus by training the brain to use both eyes together, and creating the illusion of depth in the images involves using grayscale shading and a repeating pattern.
42:21
Magic Eye illusions are not just a joke, but rather neat images that can be seen by relaxing the eyes and letting the image come into focus.
Categories:
Society & Culture
