-- In this paper, we present a theoretical framing of the functions of a mirror by breaking the synchrony between the state of a reference object and its reflection. This framing provides a new conceptualization of the uses of reflections for various applications. We describe the fundamental technical components of such systems and illustrate the technical challenges in two different forms of electronic mirror systems for apparel shopping. The first example, the Responsive Mirror, is an intelligent video capture-and-access system for clothes shopping in physical stores that provides personalized asynchronous reflections of clothing items through an implicitly controlled human-computer interface. The Responsive Mirror employs computer vision and machine learning techniques to interpret the visual cues of the shopper’s behavior from cameras to then display two different reflections of the shopper on digital displays: (1) the shopper in previously worn clothing with matching pose and or...