Science Saturday
Bust out the 3D-glasses for this week’s Science Saturday, Foundations of Cyclopean Perception by Hungarian-born neuroscientist, psychologist, and pioneering computer artist Bela Julesz. Published in 1971 by The University of Chicago Press, the futurist think tank The Millennium Project listed Julesz’ book as among the 20th century’s top 100 most influential works on cognitive science. It is considered a classic in visual science; despite that, it has been out of print for decades with the exception of an MIT Press facsimile edition in 2006.
The book transformed the way scientists conceptualized binocular vision, primarily through its use of stereograms: pairs of static images that, when viewed through a stereoscope, are combined by the brain to create a perception of three dimensionality. While Julesz did not invent the stereogram, he is credited with the creation of the random dot stereogram as a means of testing and studying depth perception to support his work at Bell Laboratories. Julesz’ random dot stereograms would later give rise to autostereograms, invented by a student of Julesz and perhaps more familiar to readers as Magic Eye posters.
When the stereograms are printed in two chromatically contrasting colors and superimposed upon one another, a 3D anaglyph is created. All of the sterograms from Foundations of Cyclopean Perception are preproduced as anaglyphs in an appendix. The book comes with an anaglyphoscope (commonly known as 3D glasses) tucked into a pocket in the back cover for viewing the red-green anaglyphs at the back of the book. If you happen to have one of those cheap pairs of cardboard 3D glasses laying around, see what hidden figures lurk in the last three images above!
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-Olivia, Special Collections Graduate Intern
