All the conversation about “photorealistic” graphics and the immersive qualities of such a thing seems to miss one obvious point. We already have a perfect, real time, interactive, 3-D representation of the world presented on a 2-D surface. It’s called a mirror.




This isn’t quite fair since a mirror doesn’t work like a computer monitor or painting on a canvas. A single object reflected in a mirror’s surface projects light in all directions from all over its surface per the physics of optics. And the nut of this is that your left and right eyes see slightly offset versions of the same object. This makes the mirror a true 3-D viewing surface no different than a window. Move to the side of the mirror and the image reflected changes. Try marching around a painting—what we see never changes.

Because the mirror reflects the light in the environment in a very structured manner, the fidelity of visual information coming off its surface is very close to the fidelity of the visual information in the real world itself. So, it seems fair to say the mirror is the standard of visual immersion in planar displays. Fair?

So know let’s ask the hard question—is a mirror immersive?

In terms of our loose usage of the term, sure, it’s immersive. We look in the mirror and see “ourselves”. We take what we see in the mirror as real.

But using the notion of the Turing Event, is the mirror immersive? Maybe. In some contexts it seems easier to argue than others. Magicians have used mirrors (well, that and smoke) to fool people into believing that one thing is somewhere else. So, in limited, controlled circumstances, I think that a mirror creeps closer to the event horizon of a Turing Event than anything else I can think of off the top of my head. But just looking into a mirror, do you really feel that you could reach through? Can you touch the person as you stare at yourself in the looking glass? Even dogs and small children generally seem to have a grasp on this one.

A little exploration and the magician’s secret is revealed. The mirror is separated from reality and we don’t have any confusion about which is which.

So is a mirror immersive? Can a videogame played on a 2-D surface ever be immersive?