Mirror

Researchers in Australia are working on a way to lower the cost of producing solar thermal energy by as much as 40% with the help of shatterproof plastic rear-view mirrors originally designed for cars.

London company Stufish laid out a spectacularly trippy experience for visitors to this year's One Giant Leap technology conference in Saudi Arabia, in which visitors could walk through a colossal kaleidoscope tunnel, surrounded by wild LED visuals.

Using just a few hundred identical atoms, physicists at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics have pieced together the world’s lightest mirror, which is invisible to the naked eye and has a surface measured in mere microns.

The humble rear-view mirror is entering the 21st century with an increasing number of vehicles now featuring digital rear-view mirrors.

American artist Doug Aitken has installed a mirrored cabin atop a mountain in Switzerland. Inspired by the archetypical traditional cabin in the American west, the project serves as an art piece and will be open to visitors for two years.

​We've already seen hand-mounted rearview mirrors AND hand-mounted LED turn indicators designed for use by cyclists. British entrepreneur Paul Tolley has now combined the two, in the magnetically-activated Mirror Indicate – or Mi, for short.

Every concept car worth its salt has been rocking electronic mirrors for years, but 2019's Lexus ES will be the first production car to swap side mirrors for cameras. They'll only be available in Japan for now, but this is surely a sign of things to come.

Burning Man isn't lacking in interesting art and architecture, but the next annual desert gathering may feature a large inflatable mirrored globe among all the other unusual structures. Named the Orb, the art piece is being produced by BIG's Bjarke Ingels, along with collaborator Jakob Lange.​

Windows let light, warmth and a view into rooms, but we don’t always want all three of those at once. That’s why researchers in Switzerland are developing a relatively simple method to smarten up windows by embedding tiny mini-mirrors in them and keep rooms comfortable all year round.

​Creating a material that can alter its optical properties in real time has proved challenging for scientists, but a team has finally achieved a major breakthrough by developing a material that can transition from clear to reflective and back again using an array of gold nanoparticles.

Microsoft joined the smart mirror fray at its Build conference in March demoing its own Magic Mirror. It has now explained the tricks behind the concept and provided those who don't mind a little DIY work with the tools to build their own​.

Although mirrors are currently utilized by women everywhere, they can only show users what their makeup will look like in that one type of light. That's why simplehuman created the Wide-View Sensor Mirror. Its full-spectrum LED lighting can replicate a variety of color temperatures, on demand.​