Read the statement by Michael Teeuw here.
Possible to make an Infinity Magic Mirror ?
-
Hello everyone,
(firstly, sorry i’m french so my English is not very good…)
Do you think it’s possible to make an infinity magic mirror by replacing the real mirror of infinity mirror by two-way mirror and put the monitor behind ?Maybe the infinite effect would be less strong, but it does not matter.
Could we see the screen and the infinite effect?thanks ^^
-
I don’t think so. The infinity mirror is a layer of (front to back) a two-way mirror, LED lights, and a solid 100% reflective mirror. The effect is achieved by some of the light behind the front layer bouncing off the back layer and making its way through the two-way mirror and into your eyes.
The Magic Mirror design replaces that 100% reflective mirror with a computer monitor. You can have one or the other, but not both.
Sigh. All that said… you might get a similar effect with two layers of one-way glass. It won’t be as efficient as a normal infinity mirror, but it might be enough to create something unique.
The design would require two one-way mirror panels with the LED light between them, and a computer monitor backing the last panel. Be warned that the display from the computer monitor will also be replicated like the LED string from the default infinity mirror design. If you’re willing to shell out the cash for two pieces of one-way mirror and build a hybrid infinity mirror from it… more power to you.
-
@bhepler thank you for your answer, i think it’s possible by replacing the normal mirror by one way glass, but, why you say 2 one way glass ? the other must be a two way mirror no ?
-
@tirando - Two way mirror = one way glass = one way mirror. They’re all synonyms. Much like how flammable and inflammable both mean “no smoking nearby”.
Two way/One way mirrors are both just terms for a mirror that allows a percentage of the light behind it to pass through.
-
oh ok ! :) thank you for your explanation !
-
@bhepler Two layers of one way glass works better than you might expect. The infinity effect probably isn’t as strong as a standard infinity mirror, but it’s still plenty deep for a good effect.
There are a couple of other issues you run into:
The first is the type of screen you use. LCD screens have a back-light, which means you see the edge of the screen (if you’re using a small screen like me), or you just dampen the infinity effect if the screen is as large as the mirror. An LED screen doesn’t have a back-light, and therefore works much better.
The second issue is that you don’t want the infinity effect making your smart mirror text unreadable. I solved this by using blue tinted reflective window tint to make my “one way glass”. (this also helped lower the cost). The blue tint absorbs a bunch of red light, so as long as I make my smart mirror monochrome red, the text stays readable. The false depth from the infinity mirror also creates a pretty cool effect where the text looks like it’s floating in space.
