The Week Eye is a free weekly puzzle built on stereograms: flat patterns of colored dots that hide a 3D word or shape. A new image goes live every Monday at 8:00 a.m. Eastern. Find the hidden answer, type it, and the server times your solve. The first puzzle, week 44, is live now and closes Monday, November 2 at 8:00 a.m. Eastern.
How to play
Press Start, and the clock begins when the image appears. Bring your face close to the screen so the image blurs, look through it as if at something far behind it, then lean back slowly. When the two dots above the image become three, your eyes are set and the answer rises out of the pattern. Type it and press Check.
On a phone, turn it sideways to see the image full screen, then turn it back upright to type. Anyone can play without an account. To get your time on the leaderboard, sign in before you start. Sign-in takes an email address and a 6-digit code, with no password.
Leaderboards and streaks
The weekly board ranks solves by fewest guesses, then fastest time, and updates with every solve. Last week's board is final once the new puzzle drops. The all-time board ranks the longest current streaks, counted in weeks solved in a row, with badges at 4, 12, 26 and 52 weeks. Solves under 4 seconds are listed but stay unranked until they are reviewed.
Learn to see it
The lessons walk through six practice images, from a flat pattern with nothing hidden to a hard weekly level, and each one has a check so you know you saw it. The guides cover parallel and cross-eyed viewing, playing on a phone, and the usual reasons the picture will not appear.
Eye Trials
Eye Trials is a daily challenge with ten levels. Each attempt is a fresh image with one guess, and the next attempt opens 24 hours later. Every level has less depth, a busier pattern or a tilted answer than the one before, and a wrong answer sends you back to level 1. Clear all ten in one run to earn the Sharp Eye rank. Eye Trials needs a free account to save your progress.
How the images are made
Every image is generated by code, with no AI. A depth map of the answer becomes a repeating dot pattern through the linked-pixel method that Thimbleby, Inglis and Witten published in 1994. Before an image is queued, an automatic check confirms that the hidden picture is present and that the flat pattern does not reveal the answer. Each week's image comes in 20 variants, and a holiday or daily observance sets the theme.
When a week closes, its image, answer, depth map and final results move to the archive. Closed weeks make good practice because you can check what you see against the answer.
Get the puzzle by email
The weekly email arrives each Monday when the new puzzle goes live. It carries last week's answer, plus your streak if you have an account, and every email has a one-click unsubscribe link.
The Week Eye is built and run by Tuxxin in Orlando, Florida.