You can simulate one of these yourself by getting a wide flexible plastic mirror (dimensions along the lines of 1:4) and bending it to be concave until you look undistorted. Looking into this bent mirror, if you raise your right hand, the hand on your left side in the reflection will move.
Math Professor Invents Non-Reversing Mirror
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Re: Math Professor Invents Non-Reversing Mirror
#22This is probably a small array of double mirror. If you look at the images you see slight loss of light (a bit darker) on his none-reversing mirror. Which is probably due to the gaps between the arrays behaving a bit like a scrim in shooting sets.
I think the invention will have some uses. For anyone who has tried to do anything that requires precision in front a mirror the reversing of the mirror is disorienting. I could even imagine mechanics who use a mirror to see what they are doing in tight spots be able to use it to coordinate their motion to put the ranch on the right nut when they are using a mirror.
Re: Math Professor Invents Non-Reversing Mirror
#23And he's holding MTW's Gravitation tome in the photo! BTW: Why do so few people pose with their favorite books (or holding any book) in profile photos, this was common when people had their portrats painted in the past. Has it become a turn-off?
Because most people don't read at all, or read BS (self-help books, how to succeed, cheap thrillers, 50 shades of gray...)
Re: Math Professor Invents Non-Reversing Mirror
#24Completely disagree with the OP's idea of putting this in a rear-view mirror. One benefit of a rear-view mirror is that things that are on the right side of the mirror are to the right of you, and vice versa. This mirror would break that, unless I'm misunderstanding it.
I'm interested in what applications this may have, if any really. I can see it working as a vanity mirror quite well, as then you can truly see yourself as other do. Aside from that?
Re: Math Professor Invents Non-Reversing Mirror
#25You can simulate one of these yourself by getting a wide flexible plastic mirror (dimensions along the lines of 1:4) and bending it to be concave until you look undistorted. Looking into this bent mirror, if you raise your right hand, the hand on your left side in the reflection will move.
Perhaps even easier is to secure two flat rigid mirrors at a right angle, like: /\
Re: Math Professor Invents Non-Reversing Mirror
#26> When you look in a normal mirror, the image you see of yourself is in reverse. Funny thing: Mirrors don't reverse left and right. They reverse front and back. So this "non-reversing" mirror is actually mapping y to -y, x to -x (Where the mirror is in front of you in the z-direction. Curious. Edit: I believe tomerv below is correct: x is mapping to -x but y is kept the same.
Ob. xkcd http://xkcd.com/1145/
See ALT text.
Re: Math Professor Invents Non-Reversing Mirror
#27I'm having a hard time visualizing this. If I am standing directly in front of this mirror and slowly reach forward with my right hand until I touch the mirror, will my hand be touching its mirrored self?
It seems this mirror is especially shaped to project the ordinarily reflected image in a reversed way, thus putting an object near it surface will break the illusion and show skewed but normally reflected image.
Re: Math Professor Invents Non-Reversing Mirror
#28Is this not just a reflective lens? I.e. a quadratic surface? If it is, I just assumed people didn't use them because non-reversing mirrors are actually rubbish. There's a reason cameras reverse the image in software but transmit/store the non-reversed image.
Re: Math Professor Invents Non-Reversing Mirror
#29> When you look in a normal mirror, the image you see of yourself is in reverse. Funny thing: Mirrors don't reverse left and right. They reverse front and back. So this "non-reversing" mirror is actually mapping y to -y, x to -x (Where the mirror is in front of you in the z-direction. Curious. Edit: I believe tomerv below is correct: x is mapping to -x but y is kept the same.
Re: Math Professor Invents Non-Reversing Mirror
#30Completely disagree with the OP's idea of putting this in a rear-view mirror. One benefit of a rear-view mirror is that things that are on the right side of the mirror are to the right of you, and vice versa. This mirror would break that, unless I'm misunderstanding it. I'm interested in what applications this may have, if any really. I can see it working as a vanity mirror quite well, as then you can truly see yours…
The rear-view mirror mentioned by the article in passing is not a reversing mirror -- it's just supposed to be another example of this guy's expertise at fabricating mirrors, in this case to improve the field of view and to remove blind spots.