IN STEREO

Stereograms. You know, those posters in the mall that you squint at, cross your eyes, or use the force to see the 3-D image hidden within? A common subcategory of these puzzles is the "random dot stereogram" (RDS). An RDS is created by first filling the screen with randomly colored pixels. Then, the pixels are shifted in a way that produces a 3-D object when viewed correctly.

The RDS below contains a 3-D cube. If you have problems seeing these things, try slightly relaxing and crossing your eyes until the two bottom squares become three (and no more than three) distinct squares. The cube above should then start to appear.

This stereogram currently appears on http://home.planet.nl/~zager023

According to the folks at "Magic Eye," routinely looking at stereograms "will rest your eyes and improve vision health, circulation, and muscle strength" (www.magiceye.com). Who knows if this true, but at least their fun to look at.

With "In Stereo," you create a live-action random dot stereogram. Viewers can see themselves or any object in live 3-D.