Normal mirrors are, of course, already 3D. However, even with those winged mirrors in tailors' fitting rooms, you can't really see your back, and even looking at your sides requires twisting and turning, destroying the clean lines of the suit you are trying on, whether or not it is a good fit.
So this device, yet another flat panel screen and camera combination, allows you to see yourself from all angles without even turning your head. The camera travels on a semi-circular arm which rotates about your central axis (I'd draw a picture, but you know what I'm like with pen and paper). Voice commands direct the camera up or down, left or right, and at every point it points towards you, showing your "reflection" in the screen. The image is adjusted to remove the wide angle effect and any perspective distortion, presenting you exactly as you would look if you were able to see a mirror in that direction.
So now gentlemen can check that that suit jackets lie flat across their backs, ladies can check that short skirts or low cut tops don't give away any family secrets (or that they do, of course), and all of us can see what our buns really look like in these clothes.
Of course, the mirror won't do a very good job of reflecting you head on (the screen would get in the way), but that's alright, as you can use a regular mirror for that.-- DrCurry, Apr 19 2004 left/right & up/down http://science.hows...com/question415.htmbeware annoying little pop up! I'm sure bris knows the answer anyway! [po, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] I like it. This would actually turn it into a 2-D mirror, but that's a minor flaw at worst.
Of course, another solution (though also with some issues), is the method you see in barber shops - hold a small mirror while you turn to double-reflect and see yourself at any angle in 3-D.-- Worldgineer, Apr 19 2004 I did this about a year ago but deleted it after a bone and no annos - different folks, different strokes.-- FarmerJohn, Apr 19 2004 Ah! Good idea! Hast thou considered ... all reflections are "bass-akwards"? The use of the hand-held mirror brings up the paradox: Is the first mirror "seeing" the hand-held mirror's backside? Or, the front side's reverse? Conundrum time !-- chembustion, Apr 19 2004 on the TV show "What not to Wear " (BBC, BBCAmerica), Trinny and Suse have a 3D mirror for that all round look. Effectively, it comprises of maybe 8 panels of mirrors, all slightly at an angle so that they form a hexagon when viewed from above.
One of the panels is a door to let the poor soul in.
A pin hole camera is installed in one of the panels and another from above so that we, the viewer, can see the poor unfortunate.
[DrCurry]'s solution is a lovely technological version of this.-- jonthegeologist, Apr 20 2004 FJ: sorry - either completely missed reading your idea or was subconsciously channeling it. po: that's the best and most intuitive explanation of the left-right thing I've seen. Worldgineer: that method has never worked very very for me, and I think it would be difficult to reflect more than a small portion of your back without something more complicated. Ever stood in between parallel mirrors? You can't see all your back, because your front gets in the way.-- DrCurry, Apr 20 2004 [DC] The only angle you can't see using the two mirror method is exactly behind yourself, which is why the paralell mirror method doesn't work. Also, the small mirror reflects a larger mirror, and you can see as much of your back as you want depending on how close you hold the little mirror to your face. I'm sorry it doesn't work for you, does vampireism (don't bother looking it up) run in your family? Anyway, I like your idea and the double-mirror method has it's own faults.-- Worldgineer, Apr 28 2004 random, halfbakery