Is it possible to make the computer screen act like a mirror using software?

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zoiks

Lifer
Jan 13, 2000
11,787
3
81
Originally posted by: djheater
Originally posted by: zoiks
Originally posted by: djheater
A reflection, is REFLECTED light.
A monitor functions by GENERATING light.


You could potentially make an LCD with a reflective backing, so that it would reflect when off, or through clever engineering get the reflective background to be viewable through the LCD.


I agree about the reflecting light and the monitor generating light.
But is it possible that using the generated light, that you could portray the same characteristics of a mirror that enables it to display a reflection when an external light strikes it.

No.

The disconnect is that you're not thinking of the particle characteristics of light.
The reflection you see is because no light is absorbed by the mirror it is cast back to your eye.
The monitor, generating light, does not reflect it, it is already pouring out it's own stream...


Much better answer. :thumbsup:
 

djheater

Lifer
Mar 19, 2001
14,637
2
0
Originally posted by: zoiks
Originally posted by: djheater
Originally posted by: zoiks
Originally posted by: djheater
A reflection, is REFLECTED light.
A monitor functions by GENERATING light.


You could potentially make an LCD with a reflective backing, so that it would reflect when off, or through clever engineering get the reflective background to be viewable through the LCD.


I agree about the reflecting light and the monitor generating light.
But is it possible that using the generated light, that you could portray the same characteristics of a mirror that enables it to display a reflection when an external light strikes it.

No.

The disconnect is that you're not thinking of the particle characteristics of light.
The reflection you see is because no light is absorbed by the mirror it is cast back to your eye.
The monitor, generating light, does not reflect it, it is already pouring out it's own stream...


Much better answer. :thumbsup:

Thanks. I'd like to be a teacher one day, so I've started thinking about how to explain things..

 

alkemyst

No Lifer
Feb 13, 2001
83,769
19
81
Originally posted by: zoiks
Originally posted by: her209
Originally posted by: zoiks
Originally posted by: her209
Just because its chrome colored doesn't make it reflect.
So if I see a surface that is chrome colored, bright chrome that is, I'm sure to see my reflection somewhat distorted it may be. It is still there.

I'm just looking for a more concrete answer I guess if it is indeed not possible.
Take a picture of your mirror.


The problem is that I wouldn't be taking a picture of the mirror but rather that of the reflection. So that will not work.


In reality you'd be taking a picture of the mirror.

A monitor is not a mirror.


 

yosuke188

Platinum Member
Apr 19, 2005
2,726
2
0
Reflection (or the ability to reflect things) is a physical property is it not?

A monitor is a monitor no matter what it displays...
 

flexy

Diamond Member
Sep 28, 2001
8,464
155
106
this thread is as dumb as debating w/ a friend whether its possible to BOIL AN EGG using negative temperatures. (By "the difference" created by the remp of the egg...and the "negative" temperature) Eg. talking negative celsius here.

It would NOT in his head that something like "negative temperature" doesnt EXIST.
 

randay

Lifer
May 30, 2006
11,018
216
106
its easy. get a camera, point it in the same direction as the monitor, then have the monitor display whatever the camera captures. then flip it 180 degrees horizontally.
 

Ameesh

Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
23,686
1
0
Originally posted by: zoiks
Not in flat panels though. I was thinking something like a software that renders or paints chrome that would mimic a mirror when you looked at it.

i can't tell if this is a joke or not.


i call shens
 

zoiks

Lifer
Jan 13, 2000
11,787
3
81
Originally posted by: PhoenixOrion
are people really that vain?

i don't want to see my real-time mug on my monitor.


It might help you clear that booger from your nose.
 

PhoenixOrion

Diamond Member
May 4, 2004
4,312
0
0
Originally posted by: zoiks
Originally posted by: PhoenixOrion
are people really that vain?

i don't want to see my real-time mug on my monitor.


It might help you clear that booger from your nose.

i'm sure my intarnat date would appreciate that. thanx.
 

lyssword

Diamond Member
Dec 15, 2005
5,630
25
91
Originally posted by: djheater
A reflection, is REFLECTED light.
A monitor functions by GENERATING light.


You could potentially make an LCD with a reflective backing, so that it would reflect when off, or through clever engineering get the reflective background to be viewable through the LCD.

QFT, only way is if you have a bunch of cameras all over the monitor that see outwards and then display what they see.
 

mercanucaribe

Banned
Oct 20, 2004
9,763
1
0
The light that hits a mirror is reflected at the same angle on the other side of a normal. Imagine a mirror divided into millions of tiny square pixels.. Each of those pixels reflects many different colors of light, because it's being hit by that light from all directions. If your eye is at 45 degrees on the right side of that pixel, you see what's 45 degrees on the left. Someone looking at the pixel from the exact front will see a different image. That's impossible to do with a display. Each pixel would have to contain infinite cameras and be able to transmit light in infinte directions.
 

BobWilson

Junior Member
Oct 29, 2006
9
0
0
Originally posted by: Kelvrick
Iono what kinda software is out there, but it would involve a webcam and pushing the video feed onto your desktop.

Windows Media Encoder Series 9 is what i use for webcam. You can view the feed with VLC or Media Player and make it fullscreen. There is the option of flipping the cam image vertically and/or horizontally so that it is like a mirror image.
 

her209

No Lifer
Oct 11, 2000
56,336
11
0
Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
The light that hits a mirror is reflected at the same angle on the other side of a normal. Imagine a mirror divided into millions of tiny square pixels.. Each of those pixels reflects many different colors of light, because it's being hit by that light from all directions. If your eye is at 45 degrees on the right side of that pixel, you see what's 45 degrees on the left. Someone looking at the pixel from the exact front will see a different image. That's impossible to do with a display. Each pixel would have to contain infinite cameras and be able to transmit light in infinte directions.
Correct! Angle of incidence = angle of refraction. You are also correct in that simply putting a video recording device will not have the same mirror effect as provided by your viewing angle example.