I use this lil bmp file, tiled, as the desktop background in a Win2K VM I run fairly often, hosted on this Ubuntu box:
The fun thing about this lil graphic on my background is that when I look at it just so, my desktop appears to become three-dimensional, the background “recedes” an apparent two feet or so (to about where the wall is behind my display) while the icons “float” on the surface of my monitor. Move my head and the background appears to move… while the icons stay still.
Weird eyes or just an interesting optical illusion?
I’m going with weird eyes for now.
😉
Anywho, it’s kinda relaxing for these old eyes to ALT-TAB over to that Win2KVM and just let ’em rest in 3-D comfort for a while. A “2/3-yard stare” instead of a 1,000-yard stare” kinda thing.
It’s actually an optical illusion. It’s related to stereoscopic vision and underlies the three dimensional images in single image random dot stereograms (those lovely magic – eye books).
I have a program that actually can create stereograms like that. It starts with a greyscale image where the shades of grey represent different levels of depth in the image. It takes a background pattern, like your coffee cup image and repeats it with small distortions so that when you view it using a parallel stare or with crossed eyes you see the three dimensional image. Crossed eyes turn the image into a “hole”, a parallel stare causes it to protrude from the background.
Oh, sure, Perri, I know that, it’s just that since Son&Heir and I are the only ones to see this particular “vision” I much prefer “weird eyes”. *heh*
And it is actually rather restful, although when my eyes are exceedingly tired, I cannot relax to the point that my “magically 3-D monitor” appears.
😉