Mirror assembly with integrated display device

Abstract

A mirror assembly () for displaying an image () in conjunction with the reflection (') of a viewer comprises a mirror (), which is equipped with a reflective polariser (), arranged to reflect light () incident on its viewing side and transmit light () incident on its non-viewing side, where the reflected light () and transmitted light () may be of different polarization. The image () is displayed by a device () located on the non-viewing side and focused by a focusing element, e.g. one or more lenses (), onto an image plane. The image plane may be located between the mirror () and viewer (), so that a perceived image (′) appears to stand out from the mirror (). Alternatively, the image plane may be located so that the perceived image (′) forms a background in which the viewer's reflection () is immersed. The mirror assembly () may further comprise one or more detectors () for obtaining a silhouette () of the viewer (). The silhouette () can be subtracted from an image () to produce a modified image () for display by device (), thereby avoiding competition between the perceived image (′) and viewer reflection ().