Magic Eye was licensed out for dozens of products, including calendars. Magic Eye was positioned to take off in America, though it’s not likely anyone anticipated what happened next. Gregorek secured a deal with book publisher Andrews McMeel in 1993 as well as a variety of other licensees. That in-flight image also caught the attention of Mark Gregorek, a licensing agent who approached Baccei and told him there was incredible potential for partnering with other companies to create more Magic Eye content. While Baccei called the pictures Stare-e-os, the Amazing 3D Gaze Toys, the Japanese sold the images under the name Magic Eye. Limited on a series of books and posters. One of the images appeared in the American Airlines magazine American Way, where it caught the eye of Japanese businessmen. Thing Enterprises, and taking assignments for the illustrations. By 1991, Baccei was working on his own start-up, N.E. Look at a picture of some tropical fish, for example, and a fish tank would appear. A Pentica co-worker named Bob Salitsky was able to refine the dots for a sharper image. The ad became so popular that readers tore the page out of the magazine and pinned it up in offices or faxed it to associates.īelieving he was on to something, Baccei partnered with graphic artist Cheri Smith, who helped him create more involved images on a computer instead of the generic clip art he had been using. He decided to design one for Pentica, which “hid” the model number of a new product in the dotted image and prompted readers to contact them for a prize if they could see it. While it appeared to be nothing more than television static, focusing on it revealed circles and dots. There, Baccei saw one of the single image random dot stereograms and was amused by the visual trick. When Baccei asked where he could get more information about the hobby, Labbe directed him to Stereo World magazine. The performer, Ron Labbe, happened to be a 3D photography enthusiast and brought along a stereo camera. Perhaps inevitably, he hired a mime for the ad. There, Baccei was tasked with advertising a MIME in-circuit emulator, which helped debug computer systems. He eventually moved on to work for Pentica Systems, a computer hardware company located just outside of Boston, Massachusetts. In the 1970s, Baccei was a bus driver for Green Tortoise, a purported “hippie” transportation company. But it would be Baccei who would turn this clever sleight of sight into a national phenomenon. Further work by visual neuroscientist Christopher Tyler in the 1970s condensed the illusion to a single image. This stereopsis, or 3D effect, works because the brain essentially marries the two of them together to avoid experiencing double vision. Julesz proved depth perception was a function of the brain, not the eye. When viewed side-by-side, a circle appeared to “float” above the background. One circular space would be shifted slightly in a second image. To achieve this, Julesz created one image of uniform, randomly distributed dots. In 1959, a cognitive psychologist named Béla Julesz was able to take these illustrations, known as single image random dot stereograms, and make them visible to the naked eye. The trick amused royalty like Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The Magic Eye images were based on principles that stretched as far back as 1828, when English physicist Sir Charles Wheatstone invented a device called the stereoscope that could merge two images together to create the illusion of depth. Baccei knew they were all staring at a fad, but he was determined to make the most of it. Soon, they’d be on boxes of Apple Cinnamon Cheerios, too. Posters, coffee mugs, Hallmark cards, games, and postcards were emblazoned with the optical effect. Two Magic Eye books were on the New York Times bestseller list. Sales of products featuring his wildly popular Magic Eye illustrations-which appeared to be two-dimensional abstract images until the viewer’s brain “switched” and perceived it as a three-dimensional image-were set to hit $100 million. By that point, his company needed no subliminal messaging in order to be successful. “Oh, no, we can’t do that,” one executive said.īaccei thought it was funny. When their eyes relaxed, the executives were able to make out the “hidden” message in the bowl: BUY ME. The board depicted a bowl of cereal and an ill-defined series of dots. Thing Enterprises company in 1994, he led them to a mock-up cereal advertisement he had his employees put together. When Magic Eye creator Tom Baccei welcomed executives from General Mills to the offices of his N.E.
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