Free Viewing is merging a stereo pair to see them in 3-D without the aid of 3-D glasses or any other type of viewing device. It's just a stereo pair of left-eye and right-eye images, your eyes, and your brain. Free viewing is a superpower you may not know you have.
There are two ways we can free view a stereo pair: parallel viewing and cross-eyed viewing
In parallel viewing the right eye image is placed in front of the right eye, and the left eye image in front of the left eye. You stare straight ahead at both of them to merge into 3-D. Stereoscopes and the popular Viewmaster™ use parallel viewing. Click here for a Parallel Viewing Tutorial."
Cross-eyed viewing involves the opposite, placing the left eye image on the right and the right eye image on the left. The viewer crosses his/her eyes to fuse the image info 3-D. Click here for a Cross-eyed Viewing Tutorial."