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Awesome Mirrors

Shark Disco Ball

Shark Disco Ball
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AMCLUBShop proves anything can be a disco ball if you cover it with enough mirrored tiles. Among the many sparkly things in their Etsy shop is this ridiculously awesome disco ball in the shape of a shark. The 22″ long fish is the perfect excuse to have a dance party during Shark Week, and a great piece of decor for marine biologists and choreographers alike.

Bending Images with a Concave Mirror

Bending Images with a Concave Mirror

When you apply a curve to a mirror, it distorts the image it reflects. In these two videos, Dr. Boyd F. Edwards shows some of the strange visual effects that happen when an object is placed in front of a large concave mirror. Objects can appear upright, inverted, magnified, or minified depending on their distance relative to the mirror’s focal point.

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HyperHedra + HyperPyramid Infinity Lights

HyperHedra + HyperPyramid Infinity Lights

The makers of the HyperCube infinity light are back with two new conversation pieces. The app-controlled HyperHedra and HyperPyramid are triangular mirrored structures illuminated with hundreds of colorful LEDs inside. Thanks to their angled frames, the 11″ tetrahedron and 15″ pyramid produce even more kaleidoscopic patterns than the cubes.

İnfinity Mirror Coffee Tables

İnfinity Mirror Coffee Tables
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AshelArt makes unique round coffee tables with a built-in light show. Underneath its glass top are two circles of RGB LEDs and a mirror creating the illusion of depth. There are numerous animations to choose from which can sync with music. The base and frame are made from wood and come in 20″ and 25″ sizes.

Making an Infinite Terrarium

Making an Infinite Terrarium

Ideal Idea set out to build a unique terrarium inspired by infinity cubes. By upping the complexity to a 20-sided shape, he provided enough space for the plants to thrive. He cut the sides from acrylic and 3D printed the structure, which is held together with cord. The infinite illusion was created using reflective film and LED lights.

Cleaning + Recoating a Giant Telescope Mirror

Cleaning + Recoating a Giant Telescope Mirror

Geek out as a team of scientists remove the old coating and apply a new one to the mirror from the Air Force Research Lab’s huge Advanced Electro-Optical System telescope. The process must be performed from time to time to ensure the telescope remains functional in its job of tracking low-earth satellites and ballistic missiles.

Infinity Mirror Mine Shaft Table

Infinity Mirror Mine Shaft Table

Placing a one-way mirror in front of a regular mirror can create an infinite reflection illusion. It’s typically used to make glitzy disco-style lighting, but in this video from Wiz’s Woodwork, he shows us how to use the effect to make it look like his coffee table leads down a very long mine shaft.

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Wall-Climbing Illusion

Wall-Climbing Illusion

Artist Leandro Erlich is known for large-scale installations incorporating optical illusions. This simple yet effective illusion combines an image of a building with mirrors at a 45º angle, turning visitors on the floor into wall-climbing Spider-People. It’s on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston through 9.15.22.

Salamandre Adaptive Camouflage System

Salamandre Adaptive Camouflage System

Military vehicle camouflage typically relies on paint or netting, but that limits safe movement. French defense company Nexter is testing an adaptive camouflage system that uses moving mirrors to reflect and blend into its surroundings. We’re not sure how well it works when viewed from different angles though.

Magic Cube Lamp

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Bring a colorful splash of light into any space with this trippy tabletop lamp. It uses a combination of reflective acrylic, dichroic filters, and an LED light source to create the illusion of multiple cubes inside. Measures 8.6″ L x 8.6″ W x 9.4″ H.

The Phantom Queen Illusion

The Phantom Queen Illusion

Matt Pritchard’s trick chess set took home first prize in the 2021 Best Illusion of the Year Contest. Using a mirror and an anamorphic camouflage shield, the moving white queen only appears in the mirrored image. Gizmodo compiled more of the year’s best illusions here.

DeepLight 12 Dodecagon Light

DeepLight 12 Dodecagon Light
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Artist David Hughes created this incredible light-up showpiece using bespoke 2-way glass mirrors to produce an endless array of patterns. Its custom circuit boards power 960 colorful LEDs, which come to life to produce its hypnotic designs. It’s built with a sturdy, anodized aluminum frame and is limited to 500 pieces.

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The Anytime Selfie Mirror

The Anytime Selfie Mirror

Snapping selfies in a mirror lets you take advantage of the higher quality cameras on the back of your phone. The downside is that you get the phone in the shot. Unnecessary Inventions pokes fun at this silly pastime with a combination smartphone case and mirror so you can shoot mirror selfies anywhere you go.

Infinity Mirror Box Sculpture

Infinity Mirror Box Sculpture

Mirror artist Nicky Alice created this captivating and hypnotic sculpture which looks like a series of infinitely-floating cubes. The trick to the illusion is the precisely-cut mirrors and the built-in LED illumination. His mirrored pyramid design is also really awesome.

The Smile Mirror

The Smile Mirror

Unless you’re a vampire, a mirror will reflect your face when you look at it. But The Action Lab’s unique mirror is a bit different. It uses a liquid crystal panel to block out the mirror and an expression recognition app that detects if its user isn’t smiling. We like the creative approach he came up with for the triggering system.

Making a Mirrored Room

Making a Mirrored Room

Now that The Action Lab has painted a room in the blackest and glowing-ist paints, he’s renovated his temporary space again. This time, he covered its walls, ceiling, and floor entirely with mirrors. Despite the reflections seeming infinite, he explains how they eventually drop off.

DIY NeoPixel Infinity Mirror

DIY NeoPixel Infinity Mirror

Adafruit Industries produces some really nifty components for making electronic gadgets. In this video, they show how their NeoPixel LED strips can be used with a one-way mirrored sheet, acrylic, and some 3D-printed bits to make an infinity mirror you can toss in your pocket. Build details and parts list here, and the source code is here.

DIY 4K Projector

DIY 4K Projector

There are lots of inexpensive home projectors these days, but most of the cheap ones aren’t very high resolution. DIY Perks shows us how he built his own that has the same 4K resolution as the ones in movie theaters, using entirely off-the-shelf components, including a bright 100-watt LED and an LCD panel from a smartphone.

DIY Starry Sky Holoscope

DIY Starry Sky Holoscope

A holoscope is a mirrored box you can peer into and view kaleidoscopic images which reflect off of its walls. In this clip from Vitalius Space, he shows us how to build a simple cube-shaped holoscope which produces an infinite starry sky effect inside. With enough skill and patience, it’s possible to build more complex versions.

Jacobs Wall

Jacobs Wall

Artist Parker Heyl created this ingeniously simple but visually stunning installation work. Inspired by Jacob’s Ladder toys, it mechanically flips dozens of them with wood on one side and mirrors on the other to reflect colorful, ever-changing imagery. More here.

How to Make a Mirror

How to Make a Mirror

While most mirrors today are made in big factories, UK ornamental glass artist David Smith shows us how to do it the old school way. It’s done by taking a clean sheet of glass, pouring silver nitrite on one side, then carefully moving it to evenly coat its surface.

Neo Tokyo Metro

Neo Tokyo Metro

This mirror-image video made from footage along one of Tokyo’s rail lines is more than a little reminiscent of Darwinfish105’s HyperDrive and the Tokyo Sky Drive series, but its slower and more relaxed pace lets us check out more detail of the surrounding environment.

Mirror Photography Tricks

Mirror Photography Tricks

It’s tricky to shoot good images with a mirror in the shot, but the guys at COOPH show us six clever ways to use these reflective surfaces to capture some truly creative photos. Though we recommend wearing gloves before handling shattered mirror glass.

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