Promising to revolutionise the amusement park funhouse as we know it, researchers at the University of Tokyo’s Hirose-Tanikawa lab have created a remarkable mirror that does more than just make someone look overly thin or tall. It’s actually able to change the emotion on someone’s face, replacing a frown with a smile, or anger with glee.
The ‘mirror’ is actually a large LCD display equipped with a camera at the top of the frame that captures footage of someone’s face and subtly manipulates it in real-time to change their expression. The researchers found that tweaking a person’s expression too far created a disconnect, and they’d have a hard time recognising themselves. So the subtle approach guarantees that they’ll know who’s staring back at them.
Besides making a funhouse even more fun through artificial smiles, the mirrors could be used to help those battling with depression, by seeing themselves with a positive look on their face again. And when installed in a clothing store’s changing room the mirror could boost sales if every customer saw themselves smiling in whatever outfit they happened to be trying on. [DigInfo TV]