This idea was inspried by a bizzaro dream I had the other night involving me, a mirror, and no reflection of my face...yes very dark indeed.

It went like this

As i walked passed a full length mirror, I swung around to briefly check myself out (as you do). To my horror my relfection was not of the front of my body, but of the back. So I could see the entire back of me. dark right? Well I was slightly intriguied by this, so i turned my back to the mirror and looked over my shoulder. Now I could see the entire front part of my body, but still only the back of my head...no face. I tried several positions, and no matter what I did, I could never see my face. I was so massively freaked out my this eerie macabre mirror I woke up with a jolt, and sat up for a while trying to make sense of this magic.

This is the solution I came up with, and got further inspired to come up with more mirror related ideas

I wasn't looking into a mirror, but rather a large portrait shaped reflective plasma screen-cum-mirror. And behind me was a hidden camera set to focus on exaclty the parameter that the plasma screen could display. Hence the no face thing. Cause to look at both the camera and the screen at the same time would be impossible without the aid of another ACTUAL mirror.

I suggest developing a mirror similar to this, with added features....read on

1) Another benefactor of this new bizzaro mirror concept. The further you move away from the faux mirror, the larger your reflection gets (as you move closer to the hidden cam), and vice versa. This is just a trippy mirror altogether!! This could be eliminated though, by fitting the camera with a proximity sensor that alters the zoom accordingly.

2) You could also tamper with the settings of the plasma screen to display black/white images, or even negative are etc.

3) Based on the notion that your reflection is digital, the possibilities are endless of what could be done graphically, or even audially, Programs could be designed to portray you image in chrome, water, matrix 010's, or even a bunny suit, or whaever really. Also, perhaps a program to convert your movement into music, or even a simple drum beat would add some value.

Together, this would make a real futuristic novel version of the traditional mirror as we know it.

Built in to the plasma would be a hard-drive and memory card docking station. cool pictures/reflections can be saved, edited, played around with, shared etc.

These could be used as an extremely expensive novelty items in the houses of bachellors, eccentric older folk, theme-parks, science meuseums, etc...

NB - The mirror wouldn't have reflect the back of you, but rather wherever you wanted. You could have cameras fitted everywhere to get different angles of yourself, switched using a palm sized remote control.
-- shinobi, Sep 06 2005

(?) 3D Mirror 3D_20Mirror
Variation on a theme, methinks. [DrCurry, Sep 06 2005]

Effectv http://effectv.sourceforge.net/
[kamathln, Feb 23 2009]

Wikipedia: Telecentric lens https://en.wikipedi...ki/Telecentric_lens
Mentioned in my anno [notexactly, Apr 22 2019]

Substantially the same idea as the link.
-- DrCurry, Sep 06 2005


Interesting. It appears that you have been having redundant dreams. How does this make you feel?
-- hidden truths, Sep 06 2005


This has nothing to do with generally just viewing yourself from different angles for the purpose of suit fitting...jesus. Its far more than just that
-- shinobi, Sep 07 2005


Ah, but if you were really, REALLY fast, you could look at the camera and then at the screen and see your face for perhaps one frame?
P.S. Thank goodness I don't ever remember any of my dreams (do I have them?). I don't think I could cope with wierd ones like yours.
-- Ling, Sep 07 2005


NB. I dont generally remember all my dreams either, but I guess the perennial sunday night melatonin has something to do with these mentalist dreams
-- shinobi, Sep 07 2005


/I swung around to briefly check myself out (as you do). /

Last time I swung around to check you out, my wife caught me at it and royally chewed me out. And you weren't even wearing that sexy green shirt with the low collar!
-- bungston, Sep 07 2005


Heck! integrate effectv [check link] and you got loads of effects for free!
-- kamathln, Feb 23 2009


I think, rather than a camera with a normal lens capable of zooming, you want to use a telecentric lens [link] as big as the screen. That way there's no issue of perspective, as you look just as big to the camera no matter how far from it you are. This also prevents the camera seeing your image on the screen—it can only see the screen where you aren't in the way, which should correspond 1:1 with the parts of the screen not displaying you.
-- notexactly, Apr 22 2019



random, halfbakery