It has come to my attention that fellow RUclipsr @Jeffiot published an excellent video also on this subject about a week prior to me. By a crazy coincidence, we were apparently working entirely separate and without any knowledge of each other. We both seem to have independently verified that Forrest Gump Point in Monument Valley, Utah is in fact the location of the bottom half of the balloon chart image. So, congratulations to him! The location of the balloon chart has been pretty definitively discovered. Please check out his video because he does a really great job and seems to have found the exact balloon in the picture: ruclips.net/video/1D7I7fmZdOA/видео.htmlsi=BYyURFXGQsKQL9Ee I expect that even more discoveries surrounding the targets are soon to occur in the near future…
You didn't include the tulip image! I've seen a tulip in two handheld autorefractors. Upon doing some research, it seems like that image is used in Retinomax autorefractors?
It saddens me to know so much information is inaccessible to us. I admire your attempt at preserving seemingly unimportant information that contains value.
99% of my thoughts never leave my head. I constantly lose personal information. My brain can't hold all these lemons haha it's a meme taking up precious space in my brain 🌈
Trey, welcome to the field of digital archaeology! On machine 1, you can very likely date the machine (at least to a minimum date) by components on the motherboard. Many have date of manufacture on them, or copyright dates, or serial numbers by which you can cross reference when they were introduced to the market. Also, if an image is projected digitally it has to be stored on the board somewhere, likely an EEPROM/ROM or a flash memory module if it's newer. Those can be extracted from the board and read, which would result in a perfect copy of the image.
having grown up in lexington, and taken many eye tests with the "red barn" i am amazed to find out that it was just down the road this whole time! thank you Trey!
But wait, if the images are digital, they might still be recoverable by desoldering the rom chip or whatever other storage it uses and dumping the data from it. You might find a person able to do that.
Yes this ^^ it has to be stored somewhere, even if it's digital. It's not super hard to desolder a surface mount EEPROM/ROM/etc and stick it in a EEPROM/ROM/etc reader and get the data of it for someone with the right skills and equipment.
I wear glasses since I was 2. I'm 39 now. Never have I seen these images... Back in Sarajevo, we had a bird in a cage/or outside of the cage. And when optician move several lenses, bird is either in or out. And that's it. Very fascinated that you all seen these...
Sweden here, never seen it,. I might have used a similar device, but I am pretty sure I did not. Then again, once you have a presecription they measure your old glasses when you get a new optometrist so I might have when I was nine and got my first glasses.
Never seen them when I was in France. There, they seem to use alphabet letters, or ask to focus on a detail of the wall behind the doctor (which is both primitive and efficient).
"Elicit a strong response" in this case means squirming in a chair, eyes watering at the anticipation of the jump scare of having my eyes blasted while the doctor tries to keep me from blinking obsessively and ruing the test.
Glad to know I'm not the only one that thing scared the crap out of. My doctor always seemed surprised I'd get nervous over some clunky machine ready to shoot compressed air right into my eyeballs.
Oh jeez... I watched this in two parts and just finished it. I am living in Lexington, KY. Absolutely wild. I guess I just assumed more places had long stretches of fences like that, lol. Although in my defense I think I've only seen the balloon during tests for the 12ish years I've lived here. We really didn't know.
It's crazy because once I just couldn't stop blinking so they used a different machine that didn't do the puff... I have always wondered why they just dont use that second machine!
@@Aquatarkus96 i had eye surgery a few months ago and every appointment i've had at the eye hospital they've used the little clicky one rather than the big puffy one and i thought the exact same thing.
Can you please explain what this test is for? I have been to the opticians for 20 years and never done this test. Is it a test for long sighted people?
I’m a technician, so not an optometrist but I use the auto refractor every day. Nearsightedness and farsightedness come from the shape of our eyes being too long (far) or too short (near). The machine automatically tests the length of the eye, and that gives an estimate of the prescription for the doctor to work with.
I don’t know why but seeing the red barn in real life all grey and missing its lovely white fences just brings me to tears. I always dreamed of running up that path to the barn.
i'm so glad you learned about the airplane! when i was little, and very poor, we went to a really cheap eye doctor with old equipment, and i remember seeing the plane and thinking, "where's the balloon?" this stuck with me for years, and in all those memes, i never saw that ellusive plane.
The pure joy you emanate when seeing the image in the second machine is so awesome! Truly, not much is needed to feel happiness, im glad you had fun doing this and thanks for the video, Trey :)
So first, that dremmel would best serve you by slicing across the top of the screw to make it accessible with a flat head screwdriver. Second, there are different shapes on philips head screwdrivers, with some pointed and some with a flat cross at the tip. Third, the projected image is not from a laser, a single laser will emit a single color, and it would require an array of different colored lasers that, at the age of those machines, would have very large tubes associated with them. As for the image being projected into the eye directly, that would show a larger image further from the window that could be seen on thin paper, like parchment paper. To the camera, this would appear as a proportional image from further away, this is called relief in the optics world. Basically it means if you look at it from a distance, you only see a smlall portion of the image and that image stays nearly the same size as you get closer, just with more becoming visible. Finally, what you are looking for will follow the path of the mirrors. One path will lead to the sensor that records the eye, one path will lead to a lens that focuses the illuminated image onto a screen, likely a screen thats just a cople millimeters in diameter. The film you have from the second machine is probably the image. Get a laserpointer and shine it through the image onto a blank spot and see if any part of the image is projected. If you use a red laser, the red bits may show up while the rest is shadowing. If you have a microscope, look at the film. The image is likely miniscule. If it turns out to be there, you can use the lense in the machine to project the image outward with a bright light and pinhole camera, or _camera obscura_ The screens of the time would not have such a clear image, if it was digitally produced. Additionally, the instructions for one unit described swapping images for kids, so it may be accessible from the outside, especially considering the bulb that illuminates it would probably need to be changed at some point
Seeing the internals, the image is inside the black tube on the bottom left of the screen at 42:44. I can clearly see the path is a single mirror projecting onto a view screen that is just a couple millimeters across. The knob outside of the frome is where the projector could be extracted to change the bulb and swap in a kid friendly picture, as well as adjusting the focus. That's it 100%. Your picture is inside that. Good luck
There's a part around 42:30 where he says it's foolish to think that it would be a film projection rather than a digital one. I would think the opposite. Especially for these older machines, a digital projection system would be costlier to build and maintain than a film carrier and a projection light which are both readily replaceable and don't require a sophisticated multicolor digital projector. I don't know if the commenter above is correct, but I'm surprised Trey didn't try to run the machine while it was open to see if there was a recognizable light path.
My favorite kind of video essay: random crap that no one actually thinks or cares about but has a lot of fascinating realities behind it, or "how the sausage gets made"
Hot air balloons had so much prominence in the 90’s-2000’s and now I hardly hear about them I bet most of us Americans in the public school system had a textbook with hot air balloons on it
I saw a hot air balloon for the first time in years behind my job the other day. Big green empty field and an empty blue sky. Super weird since I was halfway through this video at that point lol
Can confirm. I think it was a history textbook, but it could just as easily have been math too. A couple hot air balloons in the desert with kind of an S-line down the center splitting it from the actual title. I think the text background was purple, but I don't remember fully
I've been watching you for the past 6 years. Your, as far as I have seen, face reveal coming from a documentary about a tool for testing eyesight is both fitting and hilarious. You're much younger than I expected, which makes your immense historical knowledge even more impressive. As a near sighted person from mainland Europe, I'm fairly certain I've experienced one or two of those images while having my eyes tested. Learning about their origins has been extremely fascinating. Great job and keep up the high quality content!
The reason the screws would not "catch" was because you were likely using a standard US screwdriver when those screws are all JIS style screws, indicated by the little dot on the top of the screw, believe it or not they use a different screw driver which you can buy online by searching for a "JIS screwdriver"
Trey lives up to his moniker. Picking a singular, very contained subject and explaining the heck out of it. Be it the functional images used in optometry, a fossil, a cryptid, or what have you. There is a special feel to this channel. Cannot really put my finger on it. But each video is a special treat. You're a treasure, lad, keep being awesome.
The starburst was like the image of just the farmland with all this straight spiky lines in the crops, but mirrored top to bottom so it filled your vision from point to peripheral. Glowing green on black. Intimidating as heck, like it was going to shoot a laser into you or something.
Love the dedication of actually going there. I saw Trey's photos on Twitter and the dots immediately connected when I saw this video title and thumbnail.
When I was a kid, when I had that test, the "machines" were basically just a few mirrors, so what you ended up seeing was the doctor's eye looking back at you. A bit weird, now that I think about it lol.
I'm pretty sure there -is- in fact a physical image in there. The operation manual for the Canon R-F10, which isn't the exact model but does still refer to the target as a 'red roof' so presumably has the same image, mentions a "Lamp for illuminating eye fixation target" in the service information, and likewise in the safety section it talks about the "Eye fixation target illumination LED". If the target is being illuminated by the lamp, then that suggests that the overhead projector idea, or something like it, was probably correct.
@@guypradel8874 digital images existed in the 90s, dude........ the reason it's probably not digital is because the images are too high-quality for 90s era tech. a screen that tiny couldn't produce images that crisp and clear without any obvious pixelation, but film can absolutely do that.
@@TheGuindo I said other-kill not impossible or anachronistic, dude. My reasoning was it would be improbable to use a digital image in that area when you have way more simple options like a piece of film, like in a slide project, and achieve the same if not a better result. And I agree with your technical explanation btw.
I'm 100% sure I've seen what you call "the mountain house" with my own eyes a couple of times when I was a younger teen! I used to call it "a cabbage field house" (I mean, my country isn't exactly known for cotton), though. Otherwise I'm only acquainted with the red house/barn with the fenced road (I wonder just how many times I've seen it over those decades?), and, not gonna lie, it feels nostalgic to see it, especially since for me there's no unnerving aspect to it, only a cosy mystery of the "I would like to go there". My personal feelings aside, I suppose that some part of this nostalgia for the targets comes from the fact that for many of us folks with very bad sight having such a health issue since early childhood might have felt somewhat isolating and it might have even made us a target of bullying. In contrast, the optometrist's office used to feel like a wondrous place, and being asked to use one of those mysterious machines might have felt like some sort of a prize that "regular" kids would never get. Either way, not gonna lie, I used to wonder about these images, but not to the point of going on a chase and documenting it along the way. Awesome video!! The musings about the feeling of sonder/fernweh/pothos and about the liminal quality of the targets were like a cherry on top, as I love to ponder such aspects of life, too. I also appreciate the part about artists - an interesting commentary on the role of various "ordinary" artists in our society - necessary, but unseen. (Re: the sonder part - do you also get the impulse to exit the train or stop the car to go and explore places that make you feel this way? I can't say I've ever followed such an impulse, but man, is it tempting sometimes.) Side note: I'm still not sure about the images being digital - aren't they way too high quality for such old machines...? There **has** to be some kind of a manual for a service technician for one of those machines somewhere!
agreed, the images being that high quality when being projected at such a tiny size feels unlikely for that tech era if they're digital projections. you'd get some pixelation at the very least and there's none of that there. meanwhile, film has fidelity on the molecular level, so even the tiniest film slide can be projected at perfect fidelity.
20:15 I'm sure the sailboat on lake target is used by Zeiss. My optometrist works only with that specific brand. We had small talks in the past both about the boat and Zeiss so I feel pretty confident about it
Yeah, I'm from the Czech Republic and I've always been measured by this Canon picture of a house. Thanks for the video, it's awesome :) I'm glad to learn something new regarding tech history.
DUUUUDE, YOU NEED TO GET INTO VR! around the 1 hour mark you talk about wanting to go through the barrier and look around and be inside the scene, THAT is what VR fundamentally gives you.
The aesthetic you have in this vid gives unexpected villain in a scifi graphic novel. This subject is the ultimate instance of liminality in a real, serious product.
trey the explainer drops are rare, memorable treats. he's one of yt's true auteurs, someone whose works are labors of love. if there were more creators like TtE, yt would be an immesurably better place
Oh they're BEAUTIFUL pictures! Whenever I was just a kid my grandmother was an eye doctor. Everyday after school, I couldn't wait to go visit her at her office so I can go look into her machine and see the beautiful picture of the resplendent farmhouse. I probably spent most of my childhood at least 20 hours every day just looking into that machine that beautiful picture.
I have glasses but I don't recall ever looking at photos of any sort for the test?? It's mostly the eye puff and the letter chart, anyways always glad to have more Trey the explainer Edit: so I've definitely used that machine where you put your chin on the thing, focus on a point, and then they puff air in your eyes, but again, there were no pictures involved, it was just a green dot I was told to look at
just an hour in but i already know the part starting with 'the targets as art' has been one of the finest work and writing ive seen on your channel thats what i like about your view on archeology and the other subjects you make videos on explorations of sonder (like your incredible video on the russian school kid, drawing while being bored of homework), nostalgia and your deeply emotional and human perspective on the topics you choose to delve into i didnt grow up needing glasses and have never seen a ophthalmologist's office from the inside, but i was immediatly intrigued by them and everything i felt and noticed about them, you touch on during the part i mentioned in the beginning incredible stuff thank you so much for taking the risk of making a video so far outside of your usual field and daring to make something so personally valuable to you Edit: also big props to the music in this, the composer did an amazing job creating the feeling and athmosphere
Part of the issue you're having with disassembly is those are not philips screws, those are JIS screws. The JIS cross screwhead profile is about half as deep as philips so a regular screwdriver will barely make contact with the inside corners of the cross. They do look like soft metal, which just makes this worse. You can identify JIS screws by the dimple between two of the wings. It's very common for precision bit screwdriver sets to have JIS #1 thru #000, but you needed a #2.
I’ve been watching your videos since I was in high school and I was always so interested by the content you discussed. Now as a graduate student, I’m even more interested and impressed that you had the time and money to do something like this for education’s sake. You are truly a one-of-a-kind creator!
I just had an eye exam a week ago and saw the balloon chart and thought "huh, that seems much more liminal than it was in the past". Now I can say with confidence that my optometrist's office switched from Visionix to Nidek machines. Neat!!
Please stay like this forever Trey. Your πόθος for knowledge combined with your happiness and positivity is a breath of fresh air in this miserable world. Also I LOVE the wild outfit in the barn.
Your video deserves so so so much more attention! I can hardly think of a more niche topic but it was fascinating the whole way through. I'm kind of at a loss of anything of value to add except thank you for making this video and sharing your passion with us - you're a phenomenal teacher and presenter... and explainer!
As someone with nearsightedness, this video was surreal to watch. However, for a very different reasom than it would be for most people. Despite having first gotten eye appointments in the 2000's, I had no clue that some of those machines had pictures in them. Mine were always pure white with a single dot in the center. Its crazy to think I've only ever encountered the 80's models, by the sounds of it. Nevermind the adventure surrounding finding the source of these pictures. What a wild ride.
I think this whole endeavor, this process of learning about and documenting such a specific topic, being so interested and getting so excited about it, wondering about the emotional response, about the personal stories behind whoever created these devices and these images, the joy and wonder of it all. I think this is what the human experience is all about.
The timing as I’m getting ready for LASIK surgery to correct my myopia… Thanks for making my last 1 hour and 40 mins of not being able to focus on anything further than 10 cm away from my eyes worth it 💕
LASIK was the best thing I ever did. I needed reading glasses soon afterwards but it was an easy trade off for being able to see, like, anything. You’ll be so happy with it once you heal.
I’ve heard many stories of this surgery going poorly. I hope that you’ve thought whether possible life long complications are worth not wearing glasses anymore, you’re a stranger to me but please stay safe.
@@TheRunningLeopard It’s the internet. People are much more likely to post bad medical experiences than when surgery goes well. Everyone I know personally who had lasik is very happy with the result. As a doctor (not an eye doctor), I read many medical/surgical histories every day, on patients I consult on, but have never seen any complications from lasik surgery listed. Of course EVERY surgery has the risk of complications, and they should be taken seriously. As with any surgery you’re considering, you need to research the surgeon, their board certification, and their complication rate to minimize the risk as much as possible.
Seeing the iconic eye exam images certainly elicits a strong feeling for me on nostalgia, familiarity, and examination of my optic vision, but I never in a million years thought I would ask the questions of what is the significance of these images in both the context of eye examines, and visual imagery in general. So fascinating to learn the mysterious origins, nature, and significance of three simple yet iconic images that resonate strangely on a deeper level that I expected.
thank you so much for featuring my art ♥♫ !!! It feels at home in this video - i've always been curious about these images. It was so neat to follow through ! Last time i got my eyes checked, i let out an audible "oooh" when looking through the machine - in 23 years, it was a first time seeing the little house instead of the air balloon ! (it prompted me to dive into google images which then inspired the drawing) it amused my ophtalmologist, and he explained that the image depended on the brand and date of the machine - he told me that some very recent ones display a football - i've never seen it and couldn't find it online but thought it could be interesting for the variants thing. seems less interesting than a faraway little house, i've gotta say. also i definitely remember that previous less-saturated variant of the air balloon ! Somehow seeing it again gave me an inexplicable feeling, haha.
54:46 Immediately what came to mind - or more precisely my pop cultural reference points - at the start of your discussion were Andrew Wyeth's famous 1948 painting _Christina's World,_ the WinXP background _Bliss_ and bizarrely the intro scene to _Little House on the Pairie_ looking up the hill! Regardless, with all thats been said and done, it's increasingly rare to find genuinely engaging and well produced content on YT such as your video. Thank you.
The house in the green field is definitely the most calming, in my opinion. The balloon one looks like I'm standing in the middle of the road, ready to be run over at any moment. Quite the opposite of calming I'd say.
What a nice and relaxing video. Trey got me strangely invested and I kinda want to visit Manchester Farm myself one day. I also loved the pilgrimage fit.
Every time I thought the video would end and he'd give up, he had to reveal some new development lmao. With just 8 minutes left in the video, I thought the video was ending, then he revealed the whole barn.
There’s so much inexplicable joy in watching you geek out over these things. Thanks for sharing your passions with all of us and making us passionate too! Literally can’t stop laughing when you’re trying to disassemble these
@TREYtheExplainer Its cool to see YOU showing up more in videos, your channel continues to develop into an ever-better trove of information. Much love❤️ 🔥🔥
The emotional aspect of these images really spoke to me. I have this vague memory from when I was very little of this picture with a vast field of sunflowers, and I remember it giving me a very similar feeling to the targets.
I've hit a point where my response is, "I don't know. I can tell they're different, but I have no idea which one is clearer." My eyes are a bit messed up.
I’ve lived in Lexington for 20 years and as a bit of a local historian I’ve known about this image being this farm for several years now. I’m thrilled you made the trip to my city to see it! I used to work at Keeneland and it’s funny to me how you pronounce it. Also, as a professional hat maker I have to inform you that your hat is backwards.
One of my favorite videos of you. As someone who use glasses all his life, this video hit close to home, I was actually watching this video on a clinic with my eye doctor and I asked her to look on the device and watch what kind of picture it has. I showed the video to my eye doctor and she loved it.
I thought this was going to be about rorschach tests when I saw the title and was surprised to learn that all of these images still depict my parents arguing
Honestly, I've never encountered such a machine in Austria. Any doctor I've visited handed me two glasses, asking which was helping my sight more when I was looking through it. Then he'd the take the worse one away, replace it and repeat the test with about 20 glasses for each eyey, and then give me my assessment. This method here is extremely fascinating. Thanks!
Just a correction at 0:40 - Ophthalmologists CAN perform these eye exams but it is much much more common for an optometrist to do so. Ophthalmologists (MDs, or more specifically, OMDs) go through medical school and then a residency in ophthalmology, where they can go on to perform eye surgeries such as LASIK and cataract surgery. It is very uncommon for ophthalmologists to perform these eye exams because they typically have optometrists do that for them, especially in MD/OD practices. Optometrists (ODs) go to optometry school and learn how to perform refractions (determining a person's glasses/contacts prescription) and can treat/manage conditions such as dry eyes, red eyes, and many more. Suppose a patient comes in and the OD sees that they may have something serious such as a retinal detachment, where the tissue in the back of the eye is detaching. In that case, they will refer the patient to the ophthalmologist so they can tack down that tissue before the patient loses their sight. I've worked as an optometric technician (I'm the one who tells you to look at the hot air balloon/farmhouse and blows the puff of air into your eye) for 3 years and am going to optometry school next year so this is something I'm passionate about :D
It has come to my attention that fellow RUclipsr @Jeffiot published an excellent video also on this subject about a week prior to me. By a crazy coincidence, we were apparently working entirely separate and without any knowledge of each other.
We both seem to have independently verified that Forrest Gump Point in Monument Valley, Utah is in fact the location of the bottom half of the balloon chart image.
So, congratulations to him! The location of the balloon chart has been pretty definitively discovered. Please check out his video because he does a really great job and seems to have found the exact balloon in the picture: ruclips.net/video/1D7I7fmZdOA/видео.htmlsi=BYyURFXGQsKQL9Ee
I expect that even more discoveries surrounding the targets are soon to occur in the near future…
Man! Thanks for your efforts in making this vid. This is one of the greatest finds in the internet.
You didn't include the tulip image! I've seen a tulip in two handheld autorefractors. Upon doing some research, it seems like that image is used in Retinomax autorefractors?
Bruh both of yalls content is top tier man, awesome you gave jeffiot a shoutout too
only way to sort this out is a collab video :)
This is some bloodraven style shit right here, obviously a time scar
It saddens me to know so much information is inaccessible to us. I admire your attempt at preserving seemingly unimportant information that contains value.
99% of my thoughts never leave my head. I constantly lose personal information. My brain can't hold all these lemons haha it's a meme taking up precious space in my brain 🌈
I never knew I needed to be interested in this but I am now extremely fascinated by this.
cat
@@EmperorTigerstar hey, Emperor, glad to see you here! :)
The map video man himself!
Trey, welcome to the field of digital archaeology! On machine 1, you can very likely date the machine (at least to a minimum date) by components on the motherboard. Many have date of manufacture on them, or copyright dates, or serial numbers by which you can cross reference when they were introduced to the market. Also, if an image is projected digitally it has to be stored on the board somewhere, likely an EEPROM/ROM or a flash memory module if it's newer. Those can be extracted from the board and read, which would result in a perfect copy of the image.
I think I saw motors in some of those things and they very often have dates stamped on too.
Trey and Jeffiot making an overly long video on the same random niche topic within two weeks?!? Great minds truly think alike.
Just like buses. You wait 20 years for just one single video on autorefractor imagery and two come along at once.
I was like, wait what
Same, the fact that Jeffiott has found the details of one image is so good
I was worried it was going to have much of the same information but nope, they are great companion pieces.
@@del7896 Thanks, now I understand framerules
having grown up in lexington, and taken many eye tests with the "red barn" i am amazed to find out that it was just down the road this whole time! thank you Trey!
But wait, if the images are digital, they might still be recoverable by desoldering the rom chip or whatever other storage it uses and dumping the data from it. You might find a person able to do that.
Yes this ^^ it has to be stored somewhere, even if it's digital. It's not super hard to desolder a surface mount EEPROM/ROM/etc and stick it in a EEPROM/ROM/etc reader and get the data of it for someone with the right skills and equipment.
How did you make the word desoldering searchable on RUclips? I thought #hashtags looked different.
@@pickles3128 what do you mean? I don't see it as highlighted
@@pickles3128Maybe it's automatic for weird words
@@pickles3128It's a new feature that RUclips is rolling out. I don't know how it decides which words to highlight though
I wear glasses since I was 2. I'm 39 now. Never have I seen these images...
Back in Sarajevo, we had a bird in a cage/or outside of the cage. And when optician move several lenses, bird is either in or out.
And that's it.
Very fascinated that you all seen these...
I'm in Canada and my husband and I are the same age as you, both with glasses. We have also never seen them!
Hello from Belgrade. I'm 43, and I've seen the balloon picture numerous times at eye exams since I was a teenager!
Sweden here, never seen it,. I might have used a similar device, but I am pretty sure I did not. Then again, once you have a presecription they measure your old glasses when you get a new optometrist so I might have when I was nine and got my first glasses.
From the US, I’ve seen these and the bird one too
Never seen them when I was in France. There, they seem to use alphabet letters, or ask to focus on a detail of the wall behind the doctor (which is both primitive and efficient).
"Elicit a strong response" in this case means squirming in a chair, eyes watering at the anticipation of the jump scare of having my eyes blasted while the doctor tries to keep me from blinking obsessively and ruing the test.
Yeah no I couldn't do the eye puff test, I squirmed and flinched far too much
Glad to know I'm not the only one that thing scared the crap out of. My doctor always seemed surprised I'd get nervous over some clunky machine ready to shoot compressed air right into my eyeballs.
Oh jeez... I watched this in two parts and just finished it. I am living in Lexington, KY. Absolutely wild. I guess I just assumed more places had long stretches of fences like that, lol. Although in my defense I think I've only seen the balloon during tests for the 12ish years I've lived here. We really didn't know.
It's crazy because once I just couldn't stop blinking so they used a different machine that didn't do the puff... I have always wondered why they just dont use that second machine!
@@Aquatarkus96 i had eye surgery a few months ago and every appointment i've had at the eye hospital they've used the little clicky one rather than the big puffy one and i thought the exact same thing.
when you went "its a different house! its not the sailboat!" i kid you not my jaw dropped. idk how you got me so invested
As someone who has worked in optometry for 11 years, I'm so hyped 🤣 you're awesome
That’s fantastic, what do you do specifically? I’m a vision science student and am debating whether to pursue academic research or optometry.
Can you please explain what this test is for? I have been to the opticians for 20 years and never done this test.
Is it a test for long sighted people?
I’m a technician, so not an optometrist but I use the auto refractor every day. Nearsightedness and farsightedness come from the shape of our eyes being too long (far) or too short (near). The machine automatically tests the length of the eye, and that gives an estimate of the prescription for the doctor to work with.
I don’t know why but seeing the red barn in real life all grey and missing its lovely white fences just brings me to tears. I always dreamed of running up that path to the barn.
unrelated but if ur real name is berkley heyyy im also berkeley
1 hour and a half of a seemingly random dull topic? This is going to be ABSOLUTE CINEMA
i'm so glad you learned about the airplane! when i was little, and very poor, we went to a really cheap eye doctor with old equipment, and i remember seeing the plane and thinking, "where's the balloon?" this stuck with me for years, and in all those memes, i never saw that ellusive plane.
The pure joy you emanate when seeing the image in the second machine is so awesome! Truly, not much is needed to feel happiness, im glad you had fun doing this and thanks for the video, Trey :)
So first, that dremmel would best serve you by slicing across the top of the screw to make it accessible with a flat head screwdriver. Second, there are different shapes on philips head screwdrivers, with some pointed and some with a flat cross at the tip. Third, the projected image is not from a laser, a single laser will emit a single color, and it would require an array of different colored lasers that, at the age of those machines, would have very large tubes associated with them. As for the image being projected into the eye directly, that would show a larger image further from the window that could be seen on thin paper, like parchment paper. To the camera, this would appear as a proportional image from further away, this is called relief in the optics world. Basically it means if you look at it from a distance, you only see a smlall portion of the image and that image stays nearly the same size as you get closer, just with more becoming visible. Finally, what you are looking for will follow the path of the mirrors. One path will lead to the sensor that records the eye, one path will lead to a lens that focuses the illuminated image onto a screen, likely a screen thats just a cople millimeters in diameter. The film you have from the second machine is probably the image. Get a laserpointer and shine it through the image onto a blank spot and see if any part of the image is projected. If you use a red laser, the red bits may show up while the rest is shadowing. If you have a microscope, look at the film. The image is likely miniscule. If it turns out to be there, you can use the lense in the machine to project the image outward with a bright light and pinhole camera, or _camera obscura_
The screens of the time would not have such a clear image, if it was digitally produced.
Additionally, the instructions for one unit described swapping images for kids, so it may be accessible from the outside, especially considering the bulb that illuminates it would probably need to be changed at some point
Seeing the internals, the image is inside the black tube on the bottom left of the screen at 42:44. I can clearly see the path is a single mirror projecting onto a view screen that is just a couple millimeters across. The knob outside of the frome is where the projector could be extracted to change the bulb and swap in a kid friendly picture, as well as adjusting the focus.
That's it 100%. Your picture is inside that. Good luck
There's a part around 42:30 where he says it's foolish to think that it would be a film projection rather than a digital one. I would think the opposite. Especially for these older machines, a digital projection system would be costlier to build and maintain than a film carrier and a projection light which are both readily replaceable and don't require a sophisticated multicolor digital projector.
I don't know if the commenter above is correct, but I'm surprised Trey didn't try to run the machine while it was open to see if there was a recognizable light path.
I hope he sees this comment!
Since they are older Japanese machines I’m pretty sure they may actually be JIS screws. Pretty close to a Phillips but different.
I was not prepared for this wall of text. Now I am crying in the shower
havent watched yet but expecting a reveal that trey lives in the eye test house and flies around in the eye test hot air balloon
My favorite kind of video essay: random crap that no one actually thinks or cares about but has a lot of fascinating realities behind it, or "how the sausage gets made"
But definitely never the actual sausage. It’s a jungle out there.
Hot air balloons had so much prominence in the 90’s-2000’s and now I hardly hear about them
I bet most of us Americans in the public school system had a textbook with hot air balloons on it
Weird now that you point it out, I’m almost 90% sure I had multiple college textbooks in science/math that had hot air balloons
I saw a hot air balloon for the first time in years behind my job the other day. Big green empty field and an empty blue sky. Super weird since I was halfway through this video at that point lol
weird that you mention textbooks because I absolutely remember at least one of my textbooks having a hot air balloon at some point
Can confirm. I think it was a history textbook, but it could just as easily have been math too. A couple hot air balloons in the desert with kind of an S-line down the center splitting it from the actual title. I think the text background was purple, but I don't remember fully
Man, you actually finding the "red" barn is way more cathartic than I expected it would be when I started the video
I've been watching you for the past 6 years. Your, as far as I have seen, face reveal coming from a documentary about a tool for testing eyesight is both fitting and hilarious.
You're much younger than I expected, which makes your immense historical knowledge even more impressive.
As a near sighted person from mainland Europe, I'm fairly certain I've experienced one or two of those images while having my eyes tested. Learning about their origins has been extremely fascinating.
Great job and keep up the high quality content!
I believe this is the first time his face has been in a video, but 9 months ago he made a dedicated video for it, it was the 1 mil sub special
They made a face reveal at the 1mil sub special
The reason the screws would not "catch" was because you were likely using a standard US screwdriver when those screws are all JIS style screws, indicated by the little dot on the top of the screw, believe it or not they use a different screw driver which you can buy online by searching for a "JIS screwdriver"
Trey lives up to his moniker. Picking a singular, very contained subject and explaining the heck out of it. Be it the functional images used in optometry, a fossil, a cryptid, or what have you.
There is a special feel to this channel. Cannot really put my finger on it. But each video is a special treat.
You're a treasure, lad, keep being awesome.
The starburst was like the image of just the farmland with all this straight spiky lines in the crops, but mirrored top to bottom so it filled your vision from point to peripheral. Glowing green on black. Intimidating as heck, like it was going to shoot a laser into you or something.
Yes my optometrist STILL uses the Starburst! I saw him last December for reference. I think that he just didn't bother to update the machine
The timing on this is impeccable because I just finished my eye exam today
How'd you do?
How'd you do?
@@jrusso9602 still need glasses
Love the dedication of actually going there. I saw Trey's photos on Twitter and the dots immediately connected when I saw this video title and thumbnail.
came for paleontology
stayed for cryptids
got an eyedoctor apointment
???
profit
When I was a kid, when I had that test, the "machines" were basically just a few mirrors, so what you ended up seeing was the doctor's eye looking back at you. A bit weird, now that I think about it lol.
Those still exist too, I got one only a year or so ago.
Well I guess I'm going to bed late then
How the tables have turned!
Be a responsible father and go to bed on time
I'm pretty sure there -is- in fact a physical image in there.
The operation manual for the Canon R-F10, which isn't the exact model but does still refer to the target as a 'red roof' so presumably has the same image, mentions a "Lamp for illuminating eye fixation target" in the service information, and likewise in the safety section it talks about the "Eye fixation target illumination LED".
If the target is being illuminated by the lamp, then that suggests that the overhead projector idea, or something like it, was probably correct.
And digital images seems to really be other-kill for the 90's.
@@guypradel8874 digital images existed in the 90s, dude........
the reason it's probably not digital is because the images are too high-quality for 90s era tech. a screen that tiny couldn't produce images that crisp and clear without any obvious pixelation, but film can absolutely do that.
@@TheGuindo I said other-kill not impossible or anachronistic, dude.
My reasoning was it would be improbable to use a digital image in that area when you have way more simple options like a piece of film, like in a slide project, and achieve the same if not a better result.
And I agree with your technical explanation btw.
I'm 100% sure I've seen what you call "the mountain house" with my own eyes a couple of times when I was a younger teen! I used to call it "a cabbage field house" (I mean, my country isn't exactly known for cotton), though. Otherwise I'm only acquainted with the red house/barn with the fenced road (I wonder just how many times I've seen it over those decades?), and, not gonna lie, it feels nostalgic to see it, especially since for me there's no unnerving aspect to it, only a cosy mystery of the "I would like to go there".
My personal feelings aside, I suppose that some part of this nostalgia for the targets comes from the fact that for many of us folks with very bad sight having such a health issue since early childhood might have felt somewhat isolating and it might have even made us a target of bullying. In contrast, the optometrist's office used to feel like a wondrous place, and being asked to use one of those mysterious machines might have felt like some sort of a prize that "regular" kids would never get.
Either way, not gonna lie, I used to wonder about these images, but not to the point of going on a chase and documenting it along the way. Awesome video!! The musings about the feeling of sonder/fernweh/pothos and about the liminal quality of the targets were like a cherry on top, as I love to ponder such aspects of life, too. I also appreciate the part about artists - an interesting commentary on the role of various "ordinary" artists in our society - necessary, but unseen.
(Re: the sonder part - do you also get the impulse to exit the train or stop the car to go and explore places that make you feel this way? I can't say I've ever followed such an impulse, but man, is it tempting sometimes.)
Side note: I'm still not sure about the images being digital - aren't they way too high quality for such old machines...? There **has** to be some kind of a manual for a service technician for one of those machines somewhere!
agreed, the images being that high quality when being projected at such a tiny size feels unlikely for that tech era if they're digital projections. you'd get some pixelation at the very least and there's none of that there. meanwhile, film has fidelity on the molecular level, so even the tiniest film slide can be projected at perfect fidelity.
RUclips is truly an amazing and unique site. There is no other place where one could see a 1h 40min video about such a niche topic.
20:15 I'm sure the sailboat on lake target is used by Zeiss. My optometrist works only with that specific brand. We had small talks in the past both about the boat and Zeiss so I feel pretty confident about it
Do you remember what it looks like? I've definitely seen it but it must have been years ago and I'd love to verify if my memories are correct
Ive never even had or needed an eye test and im fascinated by it
Yeah, I'm from the Czech Republic and I've always been measured by this Canon picture of a house. Thanks for the video, it's awesome :) I'm glad to learn something new regarding tech history.
The yearly Trey video drop. Today we feast like kings.
It's such a sombre irony that the infamously subliminal red barn's real life counterpart is similarly barren.
I had a target image with a lighthouse, I think it wasn't in color, but rather green and black. This was in Argentina in the early 2010s.
Ok this was a wild ride for someone who’s grown up in Lexington and driven past this barn so many times, literally last week.
Good story!
It's really cool that you and jeffiot came out with videos on this topic but coming at it from different angles so close together.
DUUUUDE, YOU NEED TO GET INTO VR!
around the 1 hour mark you talk about wanting to go through the barrier and look around and be inside the scene, THAT is what VR fundamentally gives you.
using this as a source on my paper, not related at all but my professor needs to see this
The aesthetic you have in this vid gives unexpected villain in a scifi graphic novel.
This subject is the ultimate instance of liminality in a real, serious product.
trey the explainer drops are rare, memorable treats. he's one of yt's true auteurs, someone whose works are labors of love. if there were more creators like TtE, yt would be an immesurably better place
Bro there’s too many to count it’s just the problem is finding them
Oh they're BEAUTIFUL pictures! Whenever I was just a kid my grandmother was an eye doctor. Everyday after school, I couldn't wait to go visit her at her office so I can go look into her machine and see the beautiful picture of the resplendent farmhouse. I probably spent most of my childhood at least 20 hours every day just looking into that machine that beautiful picture.
Hmm…20 hours a day for most of your childhood, eh? Pretty amazing you developed language.
*giggling and kicking my feet*
Laying on the bed doing kickies
ME FR I LOVE MR EXPLAINER IM SO STOKED HE FINALLY POSTED AGAIN
For what?
@@matt6223 new trey video :)
Funny
I have glasses but I don't recall ever looking at photos of any sort for the test?? It's mostly the eye puff and the letter chart, anyways always glad to have more Trey the explainer
Edit: so I've definitely used that machine where you put your chin on the thing, focus on a point, and then they puff air in your eyes, but again, there were no pictures involved, it was just a green dot I was told to look at
Same! The eye puff was used in conjunction with the photos, those are different as explained by Trey
Mine was a bright (green/pink) dot of light. And there's also that one where you can see the vessels in your eye, too.
just an hour in but i already know the part starting with 'the targets as art' has been one of the finest work and writing ive seen on your channel
thats what i like about your view on archeology and the other subjects you make videos on
explorations of sonder (like your incredible video on the russian school kid, drawing while being bored of homework), nostalgia and your deeply emotional and human perspective on the topics you choose to delve into
i didnt grow up needing glasses and have never seen a ophthalmologist's office from the inside, but i was immediatly intrigued by them and everything i felt and noticed about them, you touch on during the part i mentioned in the beginning
incredible stuff thank you so much for taking the risk of making a video so far outside of your usual field and daring to make something so personally valuable to you
Edit: also big props to the music in this, the composer did an amazing job creating the feeling and athmosphere
Part of the issue you're having with disassembly is those are not philips screws, those are JIS screws. The JIS cross screwhead profile is about half as deep as philips so a regular screwdriver will barely make contact with the inside corners of the cross. They do look like soft metal, which just makes this worse. You can identify JIS screws by the dimple between two of the wings. It's very common for precision bit screwdriver sets to have JIS #1 thru #000, but you needed a #2.
I’ve been watching your videos since I was in high school and I was always so interested by the content you discussed. Now as a graduate student, I’m even more interested and impressed that you had the time and money to do something like this for education’s sake. You are truly a one-of-a-kind creator!
I just had an eye exam a week ago and saw the balloon chart and thought "huh, that seems much more liminal than it was in the past". Now I can say with confidence that my optometrist's office switched from Visionix to Nidek machines. Neat!!
You made a joke about doing surgery, but you really did end up dissecting that machine! :') Amazing video!
You bought not one, but THREE machines? THE DEDICATION!
I love this channel.
Please stay like this forever Trey. Your πόθος for knowledge combined with your happiness and positivity is a breath of fresh air in this miserable world.
Also I LOVE the wild outfit in the barn.
PLEASE never stop these, this has absolutely lit up my entire year!
ok time to watch a 1:40:35 video on something I've never thought or cared about.
And find it so interesting!
i was touched by the joy of discovering a new image in the second machine
4:08 He is floating??!! Huuhh??!!
I love these kind of videos, the ones that over-analyze seemingly mundane and forgettable things.
Gonna watch this tonight so excited
Your video deserves so so so much more attention! I can hardly think of a more niche topic but it was fascinating the whole way through. I'm kind of at a loss of anything of value to add except thank you for making this video and sharing your passion with us - you're a phenomenal teacher and presenter... and explainer!
As someone with nearsightedness, this video was surreal to watch. However, for a very different reasom than it would be for most people. Despite having first gotten eye appointments in the 2000's, I had no clue that some of those machines had pictures in them. Mine were always pure white with a single dot in the center. Its crazy to think I've only ever encountered the 80's models, by the sounds of it. Nevermind the adventure surrounding finding the source of these pictures. What a wild ride.
I think this whole endeavor, this process of learning about and documenting such a specific topic, being so interested and getting so excited about it, wondering about the emotional response, about the personal stories behind whoever created these devices and these images, the joy and wonder of it all. I think this is what the human experience is all about.
The timing as I’m getting ready for LASIK surgery to correct my myopia…
Thanks for making my last 1 hour and 40 mins of not being able to focus on anything further than 10 cm away from my eyes worth it 💕
LASIK was the best thing I ever did. I needed reading glasses soon afterwards but it was an easy trade off for being able to see, like, anything. You’ll be so happy with it once you heal.
I’ve heard many stories of this surgery going poorly. I hope that you’ve thought whether possible life long complications are worth not wearing glasses anymore, you’re a stranger to me but please stay safe.
@@TheRunningLeopard It’s the internet. People are much more likely to post bad medical experiences than when surgery goes well. Everyone I know personally who had lasik is very happy with the result. As a doctor (not an eye doctor), I read many medical/surgical histories every day, on patients I consult on, but have never seen any complications from lasik surgery listed.
Of course EVERY surgery has the risk of complications, and they should be taken seriously. As with any surgery you’re considering, you need to research the surgeon, their board certification, and their complication rate to minimize the risk as much as possible.
@04:08 Let me tell you about these cool Autrefractor machines and *completely ignore the levitating ophthalmologist on the right.*
"he just does that"
Seeing the iconic eye exam images certainly elicits a strong feeling for me on nostalgia, familiarity, and examination of my optic vision, but I never in a million years thought I would ask the questions of what is the significance of these images in both the context of eye examines, and visual imagery in general. So fascinating to learn the mysterious origins, nature, and significance of three simple yet iconic images that resonate strangely on a deeper level that I expected.
I feel very validated hearing that the Christmas tree does exist out there, but I’m very disappointed that there’s no images online
thank you so much for featuring my art ♥♫ !!! It feels at home in this video - i've always been curious about these images. It was so neat to follow through !
Last time i got my eyes checked, i let out an audible "oooh" when looking through the machine - in 23 years, it was a first time seeing the little house instead of the air balloon ! (it prompted me to dive into google images which then inspired the drawing) it amused my ophtalmologist, and he explained that the image depended on the brand and date of the machine - he told me that some very recent ones display a football - i've never seen it and couldn't find it online but thought it could be interesting for the variants thing. seems less interesting than a faraway little house, i've gotta say.
also i definitely remember that previous less-saturated variant of the air balloon ! Somehow seeing it again gave me an inexplicable feeling, haha.
54:46 Immediately what came to mind - or more precisely my pop cultural reference points - at the start of your discussion were Andrew Wyeth's famous 1948 painting _Christina's World,_ the WinXP background _Bliss_ and bizarrely the intro scene to _Little House on the Pairie_ looking up the hill! Regardless, with all thats been said and done, it's increasingly rare to find genuinely engaging and well produced content on YT such as your video. Thank you.
1:01:32 ever since I was a kid I’ve wanted to live on Wuhu Island from Wii Sports Resort. I’m so glad I have a word to describe that feeling now.
The earnestness radiating off this video is healing me
0:48 ah yes the large evil, vile machines
The house in the green field is definitely the most calming, in my opinion. The balloon one looks like I'm standing in the middle of the road, ready to be run over at any moment. Quite the opposite of calming I'd say.
There is a RUclipsr by the name of Jeffiot that made a pretty good video talking about the hot air balloon image. Even found the exact balloon used.
What a nice and relaxing video. Trey got me strangely invested and I kinda want to visit Manchester Farm myself one day. I also loved the pilgrimage fit.
1:33:25 I love how happy he is
Every time I thought the video would end and he'd give up, he had to reveal some new development lmao. With just 8 minutes left in the video, I thought the video was ending, then he revealed the whole barn.
Hes back... Hes back... HE'S BAAAACCCKKKK!!!!
There’s so much inexplicable joy in watching you geek out over these things. Thanks for sharing your passions with all of us and making us passionate too! Literally can’t stop laughing when you’re trying to disassemble these
I can feel that puff of air on my eyeball just looking at these
45 minutes of deep dive and another 40 minutes of Trey just getting straight up emotional about this picture as a piece of art. I love this lol
This video and the native Bigfoot video. You are really on your A-game recently.
amazing video!!! great work, awesome narrative and i love the way you spoke about art. i'm getting emotional at the end of this vid!!
That Nidek machine you slaughtered is from 2007 according to the time stamps on the motor you showed at 30:04
The dedication put into this video is absolutely delightful. Thanks for sharing!
7:13 I laughed at the cow getting something injected into its brain. So random
oh yeah that's a stun gun. used to stun a cow before slaughter. which IMO makes it 30 times funnier that he put it in
as soon as i saw the picture, i had the same thought, then the absolute madman threw it out there.
@TREYtheExplainer Its cool to see YOU showing up more in videos, your channel continues to develop into an ever-better trove of information. Much love❤️ 🔥🔥
There was a sense of haunting beauty to this video, I thoroughly enjoyed it and I now feel so committed to knowing everything about it
LOVE THISS YOUR HARD WORK SHOWS!!!
22:07 the upper left one is a biblically accurate representation of the eye sight target.
The emotional aspect of these images really spoke to me. I have this vague memory from when I was very little of this picture with a vast field of sunflowers, and I remember it giving me a very similar feeling to the targets.
Trey is like that cool cousin who you will meet randomly during summer or family events and WILL be the highlight of the whole thing.
The eerie music, the liminal images, and the obscure ones, the mysterious ridden text... Trey, you are a real artist of thid medium.
THE KING RETURNS
REJOICE
REJOICE
Video one, or video two. Video one, or video two.
Video two, or video three. Video two, or video three.
I've hit a point where my response is, "I don't know. I can tell they're different, but I have no idea which one is clearer."
My eyes are a bit messed up.
@@slwrabbits When that happens I just get stressed that I'm somehow doing the test wrong and guess which one looks better lmao
I’ve lived in Lexington for 20 years and as a bit of a local historian I’ve known about this image being this farm for several years now. I’m thrilled you made the trip to my city to see it! I used to work at Keeneland and it’s funny to me how you pronounce it. Also, as a professional hat maker I have to inform you that your hat is backwards.
I distinctly remember the Christmas tree (Australia). Maybe if it's shown in my next eye test, I'll ask if i can take a picture.
One of my favorite videos of you. As someone who use glasses all his life, this video hit close to home, I was actually watching this video on a clinic with my eye doctor and I asked her to look on the device and watch what kind of picture it has. I showed the video to my eye doctor and she loved it.
I thought this was going to be about rorschach tests when I saw the title and was surprised to learn that all of these images still depict my parents arguing
Honestly, I've never encountered such a machine in Austria. Any doctor I've visited handed me two glasses, asking which was helping my sight more when I was looking through it.
Then he'd the take the worse one away, replace it and repeat the test with about 20 glasses for each eyey, and then give me my assessment.
This method here is extremely fascinating. Thanks!
Just a correction at 0:40 - Ophthalmologists CAN perform these eye exams but it is much much more common for an optometrist to do so.
Ophthalmologists (MDs, or more specifically, OMDs) go through medical school and then a residency in ophthalmology, where they can go on to perform eye surgeries such as LASIK and cataract surgery. It is very uncommon for ophthalmologists to perform these eye exams because they typically have optometrists do that for them, especially in MD/OD practices.
Optometrists (ODs) go to optometry school and learn how to perform refractions (determining a person's glasses/contacts prescription) and can treat/manage conditions such as dry eyes, red eyes, and many more. Suppose a patient comes in and the OD sees that they may have something serious such as a retinal detachment, where the tissue in the back of the eye is detaching. In that case, they will refer the patient to the ophthalmologist so they can tack down that tissue before the patient loses their sight.
I've worked as an optometric technician (I'm the one who tells you to look at the hot air balloon/farmhouse and blows the puff of air into your eye) for 3 years and am going to optometry school next year so this is something I'm passionate about :D
lol as an optometrist, thank you for this comment. i was debating whether to say something haha. also good luck in optometry school!!