Toast Stereogram Illusion

All the way back in 2007 Mourits de Beer noticed how there aren’t many stereograms on our website. I apologize to Mourits for waiting so long for his illusion to be featured, but being frank – I completely overlooked his submission. This illusion might just look like a normal slice of toast to the untrained eye, but once you look closely (and cross your eyes properly) … well … you’ll see. The sole reason why I have problem posting these, as once stated – is because I have trouble seeing them correctly, so am not aware if illusion is appropriate or not. This might be a great opportunity for you to outline the hidden image, and post the solution via our new function that enables you to attach images directly inside your comments!

toast stereogram optical illusion
Be sure to open this stereogram in new tab, and see it in full size

98 Replies to “Toast Stereogram Illusion”

    1. Yes, what an eggcelent piece of toast :P
      It actually looks really cool too, imagine getting that out of your toaster ;)

  1. saw the clock yesterday, which was the first stereogram-like image I ever could see. I could howevever not see this either…

    1. How do you get the solution?? I could use that so bad! You know, how it’s black an white. Like this[img]http://k3dcad.sourceforge.net/depthmap.png[/img]

  2. Approximate solution in the attached photo. Kind of hard to get it exact because image fades when I move the text.

    [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/steveriese/home/ToastandEggsSolution.jpg[/img]

  3. The general problem with stereograms is they require something that’s not universal. Most can see them, but there are always those that cannot. I saw the clock one yesterday (at least 3/4s of it – never could make out the bottom-right part). This one I can’t see at all.

    Oh, and the thing they require that is not universal? A dominant eye. How can you tell if you have one? Stare at something. Then close one eye. Then open that eye and close the other eye. Does the thing you’re staring at move when viewed with one eye, but not the other (relative to where it is when seen with both)? The eye that sees it the same as with both eyes is your dominant eye. It’s like handedness. If the image moves with both eyes or with neither, then you don’t have a dominant eye.

    Not having a dominant eye is a pretty good predicter of other facets of handeness as well. If you don’t have a dominant eye, you can probably switch-hit in baseball, or perhaps even write with both hands if you practice.

    1. @David
      i can’t see why having a dominant eye or not changes anything with stereograms because they do not rely on a “side” effect. On the contrary, its effect is due to the binoculare vision, hence involves both eyes equaly (i would say that having a strong dominance might be a handicap)

    2. Well, one of my eyes is practically blind so according to David’s theory I should be extremely well suited to see those things. That is definitely not the case (on the other hand: people like me don’t see the world in three dimensions anyway)

    3. being a photogrammetrist, I have to use stereograms on a daily basis to take measurements from air photos. having a dominant eye actually makes it harder to see these types of illusions. thats why most people in my filed use a stereoscope, to compensate for the fact that most people have a dominant eye, and to ease eye strain. Imagine looking at images like these for 6 to 8 hours a day!!

    4. I have always had eye dominance problems and had no problem with sterograms- in fact before there were any digital sterograms and before I had any ‘training’ try and enforce an eye dominance- I used to be able to use the sterogram technique to make a spotted ceiling have spots that appeared to be at different distances from my eyes.

    1. That didn’t work for me…. but maybe it’s because I CAN see them normally, the animation just threw me off.

  4. excellent im one of the lucky ones i have three books on these things and i think they are fantastic i can see each and everyone thanks ……………

  5. I LOVE THESE!!! The easiest way to describe how to see the image: hold one finger up to eye level a foot or so from your face. Lookin at your finger, you see…well, your finger. normal. now, without moving your finger, head, or eyes, look at something in the distant background behind your finger. notice that now you are focusing on whatever is behind your finger, but but you can see 2 fingers, or rather the same finger doubled. This is a similar effect you sometimes get staring at a slinky or chain link fence. Anyway, this way of looking “behind” an object is how you view these 3D images. If you can look at something behind your computer and then raise your computer up without focusing on it, you should see the 3D image. Except this one doesnt require very much depth, so at first it may just look like some strange out of focus lines, in which case you can either try to focus closer without focusing on the image, or go back and look at something closer (or sometimes farther away) in the background and bring the screen back to eye level again. It takes a lot of practice, but I think they’re realy cool. Hope this helps :) and sorry in advance for any typos.

  6. I have a book with a lot of stereograms like this. I remember that when I was a child I had a lot of trouble trying to get it. Can’t say how much time I spent looking at that book in my whole life, LOL.

  7. I’ve tried and tried but I can’t see it. I Googled a bunch of other stereograms and was able to see all of them. Don’t know why I can’t see this one.

  8. I stared at that until I was practically crosseyed and I couldn’t see the toast and eggs. I wonder if some people like me are missing this faculty.

  9. This is one of the worst stereograms I’ve seen. I got the image to pop out easily enough, but even after being able to run my eyes back and forth across the image, all I could make out wa the word ‘and’, and 2 blobs at the bottom of the page. I assume they were the eggs.

  10. Wow. So many different ways to try to describe how these things work. Having two eyes, and a brain able to decipher visual information to perceive depth is essential. These images are made up of repeating patterns with slight differences. To see the three dimensional image requires the viewer to ‘trick’ their two eyes into lining up one of the nearly identical patterns with the one adjacent to it. This is accomplished by focusing slightly beyond the plane of the image. To demonstrate, hold your forefingers, tip-to-tip, several inches in front of your face, and focus on the far wall of the room, or some other object further away than your fingers. It appears as though you are holding a ‘sausage’ between your finger tips. By practising you can slowly shrink the sausage by focusing closer and closer to your fingers, until the ‘sausage’ disappears. This same technique can cross the patterns in this type of stereogram. If you can hold focus at just the right depth to allign adjacent patterns, the three dimensional image will appear. Crossing your eyes actually focuses in front of the image plane, and will cause the image to align in the wrong direction. This WILL reveal a three dimensional image if you can align adjacent patterns, but the depths will be reversed. In this example, instead of seeing egg shapes at the bottom of the image you will see egg-shaped hollows going into the plane of the image. For those who see these easily, try it. It really works.

  11. I tried. I’m left-handed, can switch hit at baseball and do not appear to have a dominate eye.

    Perhaps there is a connection…

  12. Works reasonably well, issue is that as it has “normal” imagery all around it, the stereoscopic image can quickly disappear as you hit an edge, and your brain thinks – ‘hang on, this isn’t the right depth of field any more’ – for me the edge was on the close side!!

    Nice eggs though, they worked very well

  13. love these stereograms. it’s toast and eggs, but as some people have pointed out, while the image pops out as effectively as other stereograms, it is hard to read what exactly is popping out…
    And, the watch was not a stereogram…I feel that was more of a ‘hidden image’ with the different diagonal lines.
    Love the site btw. :-)

  14. This illusion called to the other as 4D, Comparatively, 4-dimensional space has an extra coordinate axis, orthogonal to the other three, which is usually labeled w. To describe the two additional cardinal directions.

  15. I should also mention on this post, those of you who are using the crossed eyes method to view this, you are seeing the illusion in reverse, so the letters are “pushed in” if you do it properly, the letters will jump out at you and are very easy to read. you need to use eye divergence to read these properly. bring your eyes fairly close to the screen and ‘look through’ your monitor as if focusing on a distant object, then slowly bring your head away from the monitor till the image pops. takes alot of practice for some…

  16. Some of these are more difficult than others, but the 3-D effect on this one came through fairly quickly. The lettering itself was more difficult and it took me a full minute to be able to read EGGS where TOAST AND was more obvious. I hadn’t noticed the two eggs (in the shell, one larger than the other) at the bottom until I read the notes and another reader pointed it out. I have books of these at home. The first one is always the hardest, but even after you get the “knack” of how to do it, it might take some time.

    It works on the ability of your eyes to look “through” the object, so that they don’t converge directly on the image. If you look at it like a 2-D image, you will never get the effect. Your eyes have to be looking nearly parallel into the distance. If you cross your eyes, the effect is reversed so that objects that are supposed to stand out or appear to float in space appear recessed. (Years of practice and having created a few of these has taught me a few things about how they work.)

  17. The last word was really hard to identify the letters. I swear at first I saw ‘bugs’, and the image at the bottom doesn’t look like any egg I’ve ever seen.

  18. I have finally seen a stereogram! The effect is interesting. Once you have focused on the effective image it sticks. Too bad the bacon was missing.

  19. I can’t see it. I remember these stereograms being all the rage in the 90’s. never have been able to get it, no matter how long i stare at it. sure wish i could though!

  20. This one is pretty cool. I enlarged the image on my browser to 150% so only the image is on the screen.
    I wonder if the CIA sends encoded secret messages like this on their toast! (then eats it to hide the evidence).

  21. I love these images although as most people I have a fair amount of difficulty seeing them. I have an astigmatism which I would assume is the biggest problem. Having your eyes focusing at two different focal lengths makes them quite difficult to make out. I do however have a couple books of them and never pass up a chance to make out a new one (this one was very neat!).

  22. I’ve tried all the tricks and cannot see the stereogram. Never have been able to. I feel so left out. Love the other illusions though!

  23. It says toast and eggs then two eggs at the bottom right. These are definately hard to see, One way is to make it full screen, (no white from the background. Put your face right up to the screen, and stair at it untill it goes blurry. Then slowly pull your head back keeping the blurry focus until you see it, If your eyes focus on the original image then start over. Your looking for depth the letters are about an inch above the background.

  24. I saw the hidden image or words actually, though not very clear. Is it “YOABY and EGGO” something like that.

  25. to see it move your head close to the screen and cross your eyes and slowly move away from the screen and try to look normally

    try and try!

  26. I am saying what i just saw. I saw, that there are some people or some kind of people like animal are moving to the right. They are on a bridge and under some kind of roof. The first one from the right is far from the rest. You too will be able to see it, just close your one eye and see the full image magnified with one eye with very low eyes open. I told what i saw…

  27. and it has a few eggs belo :3
    does it say something about me that i taught myself to unfocus and refocus my eyes (which is what this is) when i was 7?

  28. it says toast and eggs, im good at these hidden picture things but i always feel like sumthins gonna pop out at me

  29. it says toasts and eggs with two eggs on the bottom

    depending on your ‘technique’ the words can look embossed (popping out) or depressed (sinking in)

    relaxing ur eyes starting close and pulling away slowly will make the image ‘pop’ out

    while crossing ur eyes then pulling away will make the image ‘sink’ in

  30. I am no good at these:( I have tried and tried, I could have swore it was a buck with antlers. hmmm….Toast and eggs? I just don’t see it. lol

  31. put your face close up to the screen ten cross your eyes and slowly pull away with eyes still crossed. you should see it then

  32. I cross my eyes but I don’t know how people are seeing the message! How are you supposed to cross your eyes or look at the picture, I might be doing it wrong :(

  33. For some reason I tend to believe you are all telling lies, come on now. I have been waiting my precious time at work looking at this pic and expecting to see magic and guess what? I see nothing what so ever.

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