Introducing the Fun

No, 3D glasses were certainly not the big-screen revolution many hoped for. But Magic Eye pictures remain arguably the most entertaining thing to come out of Julesz and Tyler’s academic experiments. But, as you can imagine, making the transition from “fringe scientifical concept” to bonafide ’90s fad didn’t happen overnight.

In fact, we owe the concept of the Magic Eye pictures to three visionary creators: engineer Tom Baccei, 3D artist Cheri Smith, and programmer Bob Salitsky. They were responsible for turning Julesz’s experiments into something fun, marketable, and accessible to everyone. But how did it all happen?