Mirror power! Try on clothes even when shop is closed

London: How about trying on clothes via shop windows even when the shutters are down? This could soon be a reality thanks to new research led by an Indian-origin scientist that uses semi-transparent mirrors in interactive systems.

Professor Sriram Subramanian, Dr Diego Martinez Plasencia and Florent Bethaut from the University of Bristol have built on a mirror's ability to map a reflection to one unique point behind the mirror independently of the observer's location.

"So even when the shop is closed, their reflection would be visible inside the shop window and that would enable them to try clothes on using their reflection, pay for the item using a debit/credit card and then have it delivered to their home," Subramanian explained.

In a museum, people in front of a cabinet would see the reflection of their fingers inside the cabinet overlapping the exact same point behind the glass.

"If this glass is at the front of a museum cabinet, every visitor would see the exhibits their reflection is touching and pop-up windows could show additional information about the pieces being touched," Subramanian pointed out.

Visitors could also interact with exhibits by focusing their eyes on them.