What is it?
This tabletop “mirror” reflects the view in front of it—as rendered by a 20x8-pixel display (not a typo). Its display can only render four colors: black, white, cyan, and red.
To me, products that were “too early” are interesting lenses—think the Nintendo Virtual Boy, for instance, which was brought to market a full three decades before “VR headsets” caught on. This device is my imagined “first selfie machine” for early adopters.
I could see someone in 1987 checking their look with this device. (Perhaps this explains all the vibrant, high-color outfits.)
It uses a small camera which faces out from the device; its angle is not adjustable. There are some small “accent lights” concealed within the device to make it look cool. When the room is dark or nothing is moving, all of the lights turn off, with the exception of the very dim orange filaments necessary for its vacuum-fluorescent display to function.
To use this vintage 1980s Noritake display, it was necessary to design a custom display controller circuit board, along with a simple communications and control protocol, as no off-the-shelf solutions exist.
Press
- Hackster: "Reflecting on the Past" (September 6, 2024)