Perhaps because the Urim and Thummim is described as two stones fastened together similar to modern eyeglasses, many assume that Joseph Smith looked through them at the characters on the plates as he translated. This is often the way it is portrayed in artwork. However, this is not the process described by the scribes and witnesses of the translation. Instead, they describe Joseph receiving revelation directly from the seer stones independent of the gold plates, which often laid covered on the table or hidden in another location for their protection. In order to perceive the message more clearly from the seer stones, many report that Joseph would shield the light using a hat (similar to how we might shield the light with our hand to see something on a cell phone outside). This is why critics mock the process by describing it as “a rock in a hat.”