Mirror Mirror in my Frame

The two-way mirror arrived in our office yesterday. I've been busy with my box of tools and a load of timber, and have just finished the setup for the Magic Mirror screen. Here's a quick look at how it went:

I started with a nice wooden frame for the acrylic mirror. In even lighting the mirror is semi-transparent.

I was hoping that the foil coating on the acrylic would make a good projection surface, but instead it just reflected the projection. I had to find something more advanced…

Here's a test with a sheet of the most space-age material I could find - Tracing Paper!

Next, I fitted my steroidal webcam rig to the top of the frame. Eventually, this will be hidden behind the two-way mirror.

Behind the scenes, I'm using a great big 4000 lumen projector to give a crisp image on the mirror

I'm really pleased with the final result. Black and dark colours become reflective, while lighter colours shine brightly through the mirror.

The next step is to get the tracking working at this range. So far our tests have been with close up images - the hard part is getting accurate tracking on a 'passer by'.