The fundamentals of kaleidoscopes involve mostly visualisations and patterns of coloured lights which change sometimes in a most profound and beautiful way. Originally kaleidoscopes were made to be seen in a tube through an eye piece and had coloured glass components all contained as a stand alone instrument. It is unclear whether this word is completely interchangeable with ‘visualisation’ , although the components of this word quite literally demonstrate the uniqueness and mind-set which occur when using this type of instrument.
So etymologically speaking the prefix is from the Greek ‘kalos’ which means beautiful and ‘eidos’ indicating a form of scope.
Again, a kaleidoscope is a constantly changing group of bright or interesting objects, so in that sense perhaps screen-savers and visualisations do qualify as types of kaleidoscopes.
Additionally the patterns seen may portray more symmetrical scenarios from time to time.
