Augmented Mirrors

A recurrent problem in egocentric Augmented Reality (AR) applications is the misestimation of depth. Providing alternative views from non-egocentric perspectives can convey useful information for applications that require the correct judgment of depth as it is in the case of placement and alignment of virtual and real content, but also for exploration and visualization tasks.In this paper, we introduce Augmented Mirrors. Through the integration of a real mirror, our approach is capable to reflect changes of the real and virtual content of an AR application while users benefit from the perceptual advantages of using mirrors. Our concept, simple yet effective, only requires tracking the user and mirror poses with the accuracy demanded by a specific application. To showcase the potential and flexibility of the Augmented Mirrors, we present and discuss multiple examples ranging from alignment, exploration, spatial understanding, and selective content visualization using different AR-enabled devices and tracking technologies. We envision the Augmented Mirrors as a new and valuable concept that can be used in applications that benefit from additional viewpoints and require the simultaneous visualization of real and virtual content.