10,000 Days packaging

Personally I don't use the glasses, just cross my eyes.  I've never had a problem with stereoscopic pictures, it takes me 2-3 seconds max to get the effect.

 

That is the point.  Crossing your eyes gives you double vision, right?  If you've ever done the old Magic Eye pictures, its the same thing.  Crossing my eyes is very natural for me, I think because of a stigmatism I have or something, I've always been able to do the Magic Eye pictures in an instant, same with the 10,000 Days art when it was first posted online.  The glasses are supposed to give the effect of crossing your eyes a little to make it easier.

 

Basically your brain percieves depth by combining the images of your left and right eye and "calculating" it.  You can't get depth from a flat picture because the right and left eye are seeing it from the exact same angle.  If you have two pictures taken from different angles, you can get the depth because you have a left and right eye input.  By crossing your eyes, you are viewing the left image with your right eye, and the right image with your left eye.  Its the same thing with those red/blue glasses, the red eye visualizes the blue, and the blue eye visualizes the red, so your left and right eye are getting differently angled inputs.  Those are not as high quality as a simple stereoscopic picture, though.

 

BTW, many know that AEnima, Lateralus, and 10,000 Days have all had some kind of special gimmick with the cover art, but Undertow has one as well.  Hold it up to a light, and you will be able to see the fat lady encaged inside the ribcage.  I wonder how they plan on topping this on their next album.