Non-distorting Mirror

At first sight it could sound as the most useless invention in the world.  Thinking in the mirror that we have in our bathrooms or bedrooms, who cares how exact their reflexes are?  But what happen in situations where an accurate reflex is needed? 

If you have driven a car—or travelled in the passenger seat—you should have notice the inscription in the side mirrors “objects are closer than they appear.”  This is because the curve surfaces of those mirrors, designed for giving the driver a wider view, produce that distortion in the depth perception, increasing the risk of having a crush while you are  driving or parking your car. A flat mirror, on the other hand, gives a more accurate perception of depth, but it has a blind spot just beyond driver´s left shoulder, which seems to be less important, due to U.S. regulation obliges car manufactures install flat side mirrors in their cars.

Andrew Hicks, a mathematician at Drexel University, discovered a wide view mirror without distortion or blind point. After years of investigation, Hicks developed a mirror with a field of view of 45 degrees (simple mirrors have a 15 to 17 degree field of view.)

This new technology is still in testing, but in a couple of years, it will be the car accessory of the future.

To watch the full article, please visit https://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=patent-watch-wide-angle-non-distorting-mirror