[Pub Lover]

Originally Posted by El Mulleto

Let's say that I needed to go to a department store. Let's call this department store "The Mirror Maze Department Store". I need to get a few items for myself as well and need to follow my parents. Here's an overlay of this imaginary department store:



This image here has many colors and is color-coded. Here's what each color represents:

black - building borderlines and road; also the textual descriptions of the departments
red - flat mirror - cannot cross in front of one where the yellow areas are - these can only face one direction
yellow - the bad zone - an area in which you cannot go due to a flat mirror
cyan - the bad zone - an area in which you cannot go due to a ceiling mirror
green - special areas or a wall
dark green - key items you need on this run
blue - ceiling mirror - the worst of them all, these block much access to areas and are spherical; their "bad area" range, fortunately, is limited due to their design
light-gray - counters and shelves
dark cyan - dressing rooms
magenta - hall way boundaries - an open path to get between departments easier; may go off of if no mirrors are in the way

This map has a scale of 1 pixel is 6 inches making the store about 10,000 square feet. Straight up on the image is considered as "north".

On this run, you need to buy these items [department is noted in brackets and where the items are located is marked in dark green]:

ink for a printer [electronics]
a pack of pencils [general supplies]
three shirts of nearly any kind [men's clothing]
get a replacement oil filter [mechanical]
oil filter and four quarts of oil [mechanical]
look for a gift for someone who likes to read [book zone]
get about 15 to 20 packets of seeds [gardening]
buy a purse with at least 2 zipper side pockets and of medium size [women's clothing]

Originally Posted by Seriously?

Now, go through this department store as you normally would. Seems easy and quick, doesn't it? Now, because of my fear of mirrors, my "accessibility" is far limited. Now try going through this same department store, but avoid the areas marked in yellow. This is much harder than it seems and I need to go through nearly 4 times the distance to accomplish the same task taking about 3 times longer. It turns just about any store into a maze where you can't see many of the walls of the maze. Here'd be a typical path I'd take through this same store. Compare it to what you may normally do [in the same order for the items]:

1. ink - Start at the very bottom and go north to the other end of the store, head east to the next intersection, then head south to the next intersection then back east just to get to the electronics.

2. pencils - from the electronics department, head south, to the hallway then east to the wall and south to the department.

3. three shirts - head east again to the wall, north to the wall, west past the two intersections, then south to reach the department. Here, I'd start with the top area and head south looking at the items. When the mirror blocks the path, I go out to the hallway, around the merchandise bench [usually ducking if the wall mirrors were high and the merchandise bench was low] then back into the department to get the other stuff. To get that final item, I'd have to go around the merchandise bench to reach it

4. oil filter and oil - exit the men's department to the east taking the "detour", head north to the wall, east to the next intersection, south to the next intersection, then finally west to pick up the items

5. book - From the mechanical area, I'd head east to exit the department, then head south. From this area, none of the books were of interest to the one who wanted the gift. The topic of interest, mystery, was on the other side but is "blocked" by the mirror. Just to get to that other side, I have to go east, then north to the wall, west to the next intersection, then south to the main intersection, a walk about a tenth of a mile! I get to the "other side" and find the perfect book. To get that book, I'd have to "hug" the merchandise shelves to "avoid" the mirror.

6. seeds - to get the seeds, I'd then go west to exit the department, head all the way north to the wall, head to the east, then south and finally east again into the department. Because no mirrors are close by, getting these items is easy and quick.

7. purse - from the gardening department, head west to the intersection, north all the way to the wall, west again to the next intersection, then south to the women's clothing department. In this store, all purses are found on the southernmost shelf in this department. To find the purses, I check all shelves from top to bottom. The southern shelf had the purses. Here, I searched the perfect one with little worries of mirrors.

8. checkout - in order to pay for the items, I'd have to head to the checkouts. My local Wal-mart store has lots of those ceiling mirrors making only 2 of 20 checkout lanes "accessible" This imaginary store only has 14, but with 4 accessible and "hard to get to". Getting near the checkouts in this store is much tougher than any of my local stores. From the women's department store, I'd head south to the hallway, east to the intersection, south to the area where the carts are, then, hugging the northern part of this hallway "lane", I'd slip "past" the ceiling mirrors to right where the shelves are. Once I pass the first big ceiling mirror significantly, I'd then be able to get into the checkouts area and unload the cart.

9. exit "Mirror Maze Department Store" - Now, most bizzarre about the next part is, something I sometimes "have" to do in many stores, is back out of the checkout area, hug the shelves again going west, and exit out of the store. What a big walk that's needed!


Yep, this is about a very typical journey I'd take though a department store. I have to deal with this in almost any store, grocery stores [especially where the fruits and vegetables are], department stores [especially around jewelery, and clothing areas], and even the schools were "bad" with the mirrors. Because of a large mirror in Central Campus, the school I most hated, I couldn't even get to the attendance office or the office in general. Someone normal would only go the 10 or so feet to cross by it. Instead, I have to walk nearly 150 feet just to get around (300 total feet to get back to where I was)!

Originally Posted by It never ends!

There are few known workarounds. One of which involves the flat mirrors. I use a technique I call "angle bisection". This method works by getting to a position close to the mirror's path and looking what's in the mirror. I then find the object shown in the mirror, map its position and bisect the angle (split it in half). This gives the angle the mirror is facing. I then calculate the width of the mirror and add 10% of my distance from the nearest edge of the mirror to create the "hazard zone". This technique does not work, however, with those stubborn curved mirrors. The curved mirrors are the worst. I take longer to find the object in the mirror, sometimes even twice as long, as it does for me to map the position, bisect the angle, and create the "hazard zone" from all those calculations

Then he starts talking about his 'MindGame'. Which I've avoided readinga bout so far.