One of the limitations of the virtual experience is the inability to manipulate the virtual object to fit a particular person’s desire. The idea may be more comprehensible to people that saw Iron Man’s interactive computer. Professor Sriram Subramanian, Dr. Diego Martinez Plasencia and Florent Bethaut from the University of Bristol’s Department of Computer Science have developed a mirror technology that overcomes the limitations of the virtual experience.
The technology will allow a person to manipulate an image produced by any reflective surface. This means a shopper can try on clothes virtually, find the right fit, and order the clothes without physically entering a store. Musicians would be able to see and physically manipulate a virtual representative of a new composition and hear the results of the changes immediately. Museum displays or any visual display could be seen and manipulated from any angle. The technology allows virtual manipulation of lighting and reference material with the reflection of the hand or fingers.
The technology is an extension of a simple property of the optics involved with mirrors. A mirror can map the reflection of an object to a unique point behind the surface of the mirror that is independent of the location of the object. The ability to merge the reflections from different points behind a mirror allows for an extremely realistic virtual experience.
