Everyone Through the Looking Glass

After I provided their marketing division with some pro bono services, the company that manufactures those cool new digital mirrors recently presented me with a free sample. I've installed it in my bathroom, and now waking up in the morning is a cutting-edge experience.
Basically, the digital mirror captures a reflected image as pixels and then flips them along the horizontal axis, thereby reproducing a far more accurate representation of how the subject standing before it actually appears to others - even if he hasn't washed his face and brushed his teeth yet!
And since the mirror also includes a number of photoshop-inspired computerized drawing and morph interfaces, users can digitally experiment with their own physical features with the built-in laser pen and palette, auditioning and evaluating daringly different hairstyles, skin tone shades, or even contact lens colors before making a final decision and an expensive trip to a professional. Personally, by increasing the degree of red in my face, I just tested out what I will look like with a severe sunburn later this summer, and now I'm fully prepared for the lobster shock. As long as it doesn't fall into the sink while I'm shaving, I think this digital mirror will prove to be one of the most useful electronic devices that I own.

Comments

[Fcb]

I love the idea of digital mirrors, and am waiting for the day when they can be spun into cloth that some nifty tailor can cut into a suit - a Cheshire cat suit, if you will, in which the "reflections" appear on the wrong side? So what you see at the front is a reflection of the back, and vice-versa?

Hey Presto! A Disappearing Suit; the Emperor has no body.

[Bleak Mouse]

It stands to reason that, if you surgically reverse all of your facial features, the traditional mirror will then accurately reflect them, or vice versa. No need for your fancy electronic gizmos then.

It's been objected that there is something awry with my reasoning here, but I've been over it and over it, and damned if I can find a flaw.

[rannva]

An incredibly useful and bizarre self-examination and admiration tool. But one still has to apply make-up on the real face before venturing out into the rest of the world...

[Fcb]

Another wonderful idea - this thread keeps on giving - any digital mirror worth its salt, Rannva, would paint your features for you?

See! You are the fairest of them all, Bearded; how could they ever call you "Fatso", you look so slim in those pants...

[rannva]

Morning minutes are worth gold, and any wasted seconds in front of an attention seeking mirror would result in having to drive by the coffee shop. Alas, regular non-interactive mirrors are welcome in this house - and they already take up too much of my time. But, painting one's features does resemble a ritual and is calculated into those precious minutes.