Do you remember those old Stereoscopic pictures where there were two pictures that appear to be exactly the same, side by side on one photo? When seen through a stereoscope the two pictures merge into one providing the viewer with a three dimensional illusion of the foreground and background of a scenery. Back in the 1800's these pictures were a wonderful form of entertainment similar to what Television and the Cinema provides for us today.

Stereoscopic Formats
In order to be able to see the 3d illusion Stereoscopic pictures need to be viewed in a certain way. There are several viewing methods, which are described below.

Anaglyph: 
This was a very popular method used in the 50's and 60's where the viewer would wear those wacky red and blue glasses, watching films in the cinema where things seemed to jump out from the screen. There are also books, comics, and pictures on the internet that can be viewed with these glasses.

Parallel:

The Parallel method is where you look directly at the two pictures with the use of a stereoscope.

Stereo:
This method is where you need to look at both pictures cross eyed. You do this until both pictures merge into one. But do be careful when using this method because we don't want you to end up permanentaly cross eyed.

Interlaced:
The Interlaced method is in the realm of high tech where you wear a pair of LCD glasses similar to those used in the IMAX cinema. You can view a single picture on your computer monitor called an Interlaced picture. Looking at the picture on your computer monitor without these glasses isn't very exciting because it doesn't seem to be doing anything. But when you connect these glasses to your computer and put them on. The glasses flash on and off from left to right in sync with the picture being displayed on your monitor. The Left Eye sees the Left Picture and the Right Eye sees the Right Picture. Your Brain joins the two pictures together as it normally does giving you the three dimensional Illusion.