I have a stupid question. These images that wobble back and forth, do they look 3D to some people?

I can't see 3D so they just jitter around, to me. But I have to assume they do something more interesting for other people, otherwise why do them?

they don't jitter around at random. The different planes shake at different widths, giving the impression of depth and rotation. Or something like that :)

Source: http://blog.sirmitchell.com/post...
(I originally posted this the other day: http://mlkshk.com/p/D8JP)

Yes, it looks 3D-ish.

I have limited 3D vision, but I can see these in 3D for some reason, though I sometimes get nauseous looking at them since my 3D vision never developed properly.

@fouronenone @elzadra out of curiosity, what happened to your 3D or depth perception? Is it just motion parallax that does nothing for you?

@travis I was born with a muscle imbalance in my eyes. I wear glasses to correct it, but my range of 3D vision is limited, usually from about 12" to 25', by which I mean I have little or no depth perception closer than 12" (18" on a good day), and no 3D vision further than 25' (ish). The range varies based on my general health, the amount of sleep I've had, etc. Everything past that looks flat, like a painting. For things closer than 12", I often don't see them, so I've smacked my face and broken my glasses more than once. Within my threshold, I can see 3D, but I can't watch a 3D movie without getting motion sickness, and I've only been able to see those 3D puzzle things once.

@kyle thanks!

@travis born with amblyopia, I've never had stereo vision - can't resolve 3D movies, for example, and I choose not to drive (although there are probably plenty of people with eyesight like mine who drive all the time).

@fouronenone @elzadra so interesting! thanks for your responses! One more question and then I'll leave you alone, can you recognize when something is in motion towards you by non-3d means? Like if you're crossing the street, is it recognizeable when a car is coming towards you, or do you have to blink and look for changes?

nice thread. thanks, folks!

@travis Within my range, I can see things moving toward or away from me, but once they get past 25' it all goes flat. Intellectually, I know what must be in front of other objects, but it all resembles a painting or the background of an animation cell. I don't need to stop and process the foreground/midground/background, it all happens instantly in my brain, the way it normally would for a person with 20/20 vision. Closer than 12"-18", I sometimes can't see the items at all, not even as a blur. This seems dependent on size; I can see small objects, but not large ones that are right in front of me. My peripheral vision is all messed up as well. I have none on my left side, but more than normal on my right.

@travis When I studied Life Drawing during my foundation year of art school, it drove my prof nuts. I ran into him a couple of years ago and he still remembered the frustration, even 10 years later. I could draw, but I had trouble depicting what I saw with any sort of depth. Interestingly, I don't have a problem working from photos or working digitally, just from real life.

@travis it's hard to be sure, because there are always other cues – angles and things that tell me if something is coming at me or not.

I can't catch a ball and, on the rare occasion I'm in someone's car on the highway and we get sandwiched between two larger vehicles at speed I pretty much have to close my eyes from sheer terror, because I couldn't possibly judge the distances and speeds in a situation like that.

But I seem to be able to ride a bicycle without too much trouble and I don't walk into things. It's the combination of motion AND fast speeds that gets me, gives me no time to judge by whatever means I've cobbled together to replace real 3D.

Oh, and I don't draw well, but like @fourenone when I do it comes out flat. I'm not a bad photographer though and I make my living mostly doing graphic design work so the lack of 3D doesn't seem to be too much of an issue for some things.

holy crap!