Contender, 2nd in the World


Manoj Sharma


Soft Mirror




>>what is it?
A mirror that helps you look at yourself from different angles.

The "Soft Mirror"
As Humans we cannot escape that urge to Appear Good, and somehow the face, no matter what those judges at the beauty contests say, dominates all the other criteria by which our appearance is measured. May be because of the fact that the face or more precisely the head has all those in-built features like the eyes, the lips, the nose and the hair and the teeth, that are so strong symbols of beauty. So naturally when it comes to appearance, for most of us it is the head that comes first. Interestingly, even though we spend most time (from the total time we spend in grooming) addressing only the front; the profiles, the back and the top of the head remain unnoticed most of the time. Some people have beautiful profiles, but hardly ever are they able to see it. Some start growing prematurely bald and keep helplessly touching that low-density zone at the tops of their heads to understand it better. Some spend hours dyeing those gray hair (of course most of them premature) never very sure whether that flock of gray hair which they cannot see at the back is painted. The list of troubles is long, and what appears to me is that the key reason for this is our inability to look at ourselves from another point of view. "Soft mirror" is an attempt to solve this problem.

To see the working scenario please see the interactive movie by clicking on the following URL. The movie was specially made by me for this competition and forms the basis of my entry. You may require a generation 4 browser (Netscape preferred) at least and shockwave flash3 plugin to be able to see the movie. Size of the movie is 239K. http://members.tripod.com/~manojsr/smirror.htm

In the following text I describe how I imagine the soft mirror to be.
The "soft mirror" is a flat circular object with thickness of a normal purse mirror. It is made up of glass (or glass like) material and has a translucent look. The frame is slightly bewelled so that it forms a (ring sort of) frame for the circular body. (See mirror1.jpg attachment)
The circular ring is actually a clicking mechanism. When held in the hand the ring is supposed to be pressed inwards with fingers and the thumb (or just two fingers that can make the ring shrink along a diagonal a little), for the click function to happen. On releasing the pressure (the way one would generally hold a mirror) the ring restores to the original state. Clicking the ring has the same function that a shutter release has in usual cameras; i.e. it takes the picture. (See mirror2.jpg attachment)
The front surface of the "soft mirror" has two embossed forms with soft edges that merge into the surface. These are the power switch and the forward and backward wind buttons. Formally this reminds of the Chinese yin yang. The top of these bewelled forms has a sliding cap that serves both to cover and uncover the lens of the miniature camera that is inside the mirror and also to switch on the power. When the cap is slid off the lens it gives a clear indication that the camera can now see you. Although this is in actuality a wrong impression as the camera actually shoots only when the ring (i.e. the frame) is pressed. Rest of the times the camera is actually not recording. The battery is used just to display the last recorded image (or the opening screen, in case you have not clicked the ring yet. Also if you have just switched the mirror on, by sliding the lens cover, and happen to press the forward and backward buttons, they give a step by step instructions to use the mirror. Once you have clicked the ring the forward backward buttons just serve to help you browse the images you have clicked.)
The lens cap thus provides a strong coupling between the mode in which the mirror is and the physical state that suggests the mode. (See mirror3.jpg attachment)
The forward and backward buttons formally echo the lens and power switch, by being a vague mirror image or the later. The forward and backward buttons though visually present a single form; they are two independent buttons and serve different (rather complementary) functions.
The screen or the monitor is not raised (like the forward and backward buttons) and is one with the surface. The screen is some high-resolution type, which matches the quality of image that we see reflected in a mirror when the light condition is good.
The back of the "soft mirror" has a room for battery feed.
The camera has an auto focus lens that gives the best results from different distances. The user may thus look at him from various degrees of closeness and with equal clarity.
Covering the lens with the sliding cap automatically switches off the camera and the screen goes colorless. (See mirror4.jpg attachment)

As an after thought it came to my mind "What if the person wants to save the images?" "Well, this was never intended to be a digital camera." I replied to myself. "But suppose you get up one morning and find that you look extremely comic in the mirror, wouldn't you like to send the image to your friend as a 'good morning card'?" "I think yes, I would love to do that." I replied. So the back of the "soft mirror" can have a small female plug which helps the device connect to a PC or a lap top or a palm top and the method of transferring the image to the PC (say) is by clicking the circular ring. The moment you connect the mirror with a cord, a translucent text floats over the image stating " Transfer active". This is to avoid any confusion, which may arrive in the user's mind as to whether the pressing of the ring shall result in his picture being taken. You can still use the forward or backward buttons to browse the images you have clicked and when the image you want to send appears you just click the ring in the same fashion as you did while capturing the images to transfer the image to the PC.

FAQs
Q-How heavy is the "soft mirror"?
A- Very light.

Q-Will it break if it falls?
A- Generally not, if the building is not very high.

Q-How is the texture?
A-Smooth like glass and preferably a bit cold to touch.

Q-How is it Different?
A- In terms of interaction design and interface design mainly. Answered in the next bullet in detail.

>>what makes this design different or better? (e.g. materials, research)
A- In terms of interaction design and interface design mainly. Hardly do we see electronic gadgets around us that actually acknowledge the fact that our hand has four fingers and a thumb when it comes to the interface. Most designers usually seem to get stuck to the fingertips, though I don't feel much reason to do so. In "Soft Mirror" the whole hand can used to click the image and as against a usual button there is a ring to make it happen. Next the number of steps that a person has to undergo and the intellectual decisions that one has to take in order to perform simple tasks is usually overlooked. This I feel in most cases is the result of the lack of strong coupling, which incidentally is most of the times available in physical objects. A door looks open when it is in allowing entry mode, or a pen looks and feels writable when it is in that mode. So in soft mirror the lens cap covers the lens to indicate that no images can be taken now and the mirror is in off mode and so the screen is inactivated. Similarly when the transfer of images to a PC is done, a text emerges in the screen indicating the operation that is happening.

>>what hardware and software were used to design it?
Pentium II processor, PC.64Mb RAM.
Softwares- Flash 3, Dreamweaver 1.2, Adobe Photoshop5 & Adobe Dimensions
Materials-Nikon FM-2 used for photography


>>how is it intended to be manufactured or produced?
It is intended to be produced by the people who are currently in the business of making digital cameras. It shall require some innovation in terms of reducing the size of components like the miniature camera, the autofocus lens and a very high resolution screen display. Also one has to tink about the clickable ring device and how it can be made possible.

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