An ordinary picture with the added function of changing into a mirror or a television via a remote control. If there is a knock at the door while watching tv, just switch to mirror mode, check your hair then switch to 'painting mode'', no one will ever know you were watching tv.
-- gizmo, Nov 27 2001

Palm Mirror 2.0 http://www.geocitie.../mirror/Mirror.html
One of by now at least three different Palm OS applications that purport to turn your handheld PDA into a mirror by - making the screen completely black. This actually works fairly well. [jutta, Nov 27 2001]

Phillips introduces Mirror TV http://www.nwfusion...0612philiunvei.html
Now baked! [dbsousa, Oct 04 2004]

Seura Television Mirror http://www.seuratvmirror.com
This company provides LCD televisions that are cleverly incorporated into bathroom mirrors. When the TV is on, it shows up as window within the mirror. When it's off, it's invisible and the mirror is usable. Product comes as a package and is very easy to install. [tagilber, Oct 04 2004]

Art over flat screen TV http://us.cinenow.c...ation-cedia-uk-2006
New trend in Home Theatre installation [csea, May 29 2008]

The main problem with this is that paintings and mirrors are very different surfaces and hard to fake. "Perfect" television screens that emulate all kinds of things (windows, other rooms, walls, ...) show up in lots of science fiction movies; the interesting question is not what to do with it, but how.
-- jutta, Nov 27 2001


Well, a possible 'how' might be to make the glass in front of the painting from an LCD panel which is transparent when inactive. (Is that possible?)
-- angel, Nov 27 2001


jutta: there would be a TV in the wall, a mirror in front, and a picture in front of that.The mirror and picture would move up and down by remote control.
-- gizmo, Nov 27 2001


this idea is halfbaked in the TV licencing warning infomercials on UK television.
-- lewisgirl, Nov 27 2001


If you hung one of those flat LCD TV's on the wall, you could make at least a mildly convincing picture out of it, from a distance; just add some framework around it.

Make the front of it glass, have a set of lights over it, and when you want a mirror, have it go completely black and shine the lights on the glass. Instant mirror.
-- StarChaser, Nov 30 2001


Current e-paper technologies use particles that are controled by elextric fields. If you were to use silvered or metalic ones then you could make the surface mirrored
-- dare99, Dec 15 2001


Fogfreak: If it was a perfect mirror, it wouldn't pass any light through when active.

And breaking a large LCD screen would be pretty bad luck...it'd cost quite a bit to replace...
-- StarChaser, Dec 15 2001


This is a decent idea, but seems a bit WIBNI-ish. There's a purely technological goal, but no halfbaked technology proposed to acheive it.
-- magnificat, May 01 2002


this would actually work...

Just get some of that half-silvered plastic sheeting and place it on the front of one of those 40" LCD flat screens...

when the TV is off the mirror will reflect the room, but when the TV turns on it will be bright and show thru the thin layer of half-silvered plastic... and a if you could switch your TV to AUX IN maybe if you had another appliance like a computer connected to that port you could display a screen saver or series of pictures, etc.

(((OR and this would be cool.... Get a small high res color cammera and place it above the TV and when people stood in front of the TV their image would be delayed or other special effects could be added...)))
-- oxygon, May 01 2002


I saw this in action in a glass (art glass) shop in Salt Lake City, Utah, US, yesterday.

It was pretty cool. When the Tv was turned off, it was a perfect mirror. You couldn't tell it was a tv. When it was turned on, the picture was great.

They had used a 15"LCD tv and it stood out from the wall about 2". The unit I saw had a cable attached (very ugly) but the owner said you could use a wireless tv. It also required speakers, but a good home theater could cure that.

I have been looking on i-net tonite, and found only one company (new venture, just started) that markets it, and it is in Holland. They market it to beauty shops, so the customer can watch tv while the operator can use the mirror part. So far they have sold less that 100 but that is in less that 6 months.

The mirror part is inexpensive, it is the flat panel tv that costs. The one I saw was U.S.$1500 not including the dvd/vcr/speakers/home theater. The owner of the store was really down on it because of the expense.

I think this is a wide open market.
-- lokibob, Nov 16 2002


This is a fabulous idea! What a way to decorate your living room. The fireplace and TV are usually the focal points of a room -so- hang the "mirror" above your fireplace and your don't have to worry with 2 focal points, and it hides the ugly TV. Genius! **I just heard Circut City has these in stores now. Limited but they're there.**
-- sdunahoe, Jul 15 2003


How could anybody vote against this idea? The problem is a television takes over an entire room, even when it's turned off. The potential is sitting there. But a mirror with no observable controls is just a mirror, and there is no television. The naysayers that voted against this are in the majority, and that's the reason we are in the 21st century and still driving around rolling power plants that spew pollutants (a.k.a. automobiles).
-- undata, May 29 2008


(marked-for-tagline)

How could anybody vote against this idea?
-- normzone, May 29 2008


I recently attended a CEDIA (custom home theatre industry group) meeting that demonstrated a system with a similar approach. See [link] for an example.

Alternatively, why not have a tiny color pinhole video camera in the middle of the screen (or above/below with suitable un-warping) and allow the remote to select this signal as input to the flat screen? Could also have your choice of mirrored, zoom, or "as others see you" modes.
-- csea, May 29 2008



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