The value of a mirror is in its clarity. If the reflection is cast by [danicakostic17]’s Uncooperative Mirror though, you’ll find anything but. It’s described as a useless machine, because it appears as a tiled mirror. As you approach it though, the tiles shake around and make it very difficult to follow what’s in front of you. It’s an art piece and a prank all in one, and we like it.
Behind the mirror is a 3D printed frame and a set of small servos with what look like some belts to hitch them up. There’s an ultrasonic sensor and an Arduino Uno, that sets those servos going as soon as the ultrasonic sensor sees anything. We can see this thing would be fun at a party.
Everything you’ll need is on the Instructables page linked above should you be foolhardy enough to want your own, and there’s even a YouTube video which we’ve placed below.
While this is gearing up to be the polar opposite of the individually steerable mirror array we saw recently ( https://hackaday.com/2026/01/19/how-to-use-tiny-open-loop-actuators-for-a-living-mirror/ ), the question how to collectively steer but individually micro-adjust tens of mirrors at near zero cost remains without definitive answer (neglecting the mirror telescope-level engineering from https://hackaday.com/2022/02/08/working-model-reveals-amazing-engineering-of-webbs-mirror-actuators/ for the sake of affordability).
I wonder if you could use reflective mylar attached to a rubber sheet. The servos would push and pull the rubber sheet. It would be like a changing fun house mirror.
Your thought stirred an old memory – of someone building close to that, with a huge wall-mounted mirror starting to distort and vibrate when someone approaches it. From 2009, apparently – video’s from 2012…
https://vimeo.com/37728839
Mylar isn’t super reflective. It will work but it will look foggier
The prefect mirror for the unattractive.
“Art” and a “prank”.. so triple useless
Someone is lacking in whimsy…