Magic Eye

Magic Eye is a series of books that feature autostereograms, a series of two-dimensional (2D) images that can create the optical illusion of a three-dimensional (3D) scene.

After creating its first images in 1991, creator Tom Baccei worked with Tenyo, a Japanese company that sells magic supplies. Tenyo published its first book in late 1991 titled Miru Miru Mega Yokunaru Magic Eye ("Your Eyesight Gets Better & Better in a Very Short Rate of Time: Magic Eye"), sending sales representatives out to street corners to demonstrate how to see the hidden image. Within a few weeks the first Japanese book became a best seller, as did the second, rushed out shortly after.¹²

The first North American Magic Eye book was published in 1993, under the title Magic Eye: A New Way of Looking at the World.³

Magic Eye stereograms have been used by orthoptists and vision therapists in the treatment of some binocular vision and accommodative disorders.⁴