Whenever you see a science fiction movie set in the future, inevitably our hero gets up and looks at himself in a mirror that tells him the news and the weather in addition to showing him his unshaven face. Because that’s where it most makes sense: Everybody wants a quick glance at that stuff when they wake up. And, yet, there’s no smart mirror on the market, despite the tech industry’s obsession with “The Internet of Things.” So Max Braun, an engineer at Google, built one.
The design itself is simple in the broad strokes, although Braun admits he ran into a few dead-ends while designing it. A thin, bright display has a piece of two-way glass laid over it. You put that in your medicine cabinet to replace the mirror. The display is then connected to an Android device and video controller, which in turn displays the things you need to know, which are bright enough to shine through the glass. You can even ask it questions, using Google’s voice control app.
Braun has a few engineering and aesthetic concerns to square away, not the least of which is the tangle of wires hidden behind the cabinet door. But this is, by far, the most elegant solution we’ve seen to building your own “smart mirror” out there, and you have to wonder how long it’ll take for Google to put Braun on refining his design and getting it into stores. After all, the sooner life is like a science fiction movie, at least in the respect that we can just glance at the weather while shaving, the better.
(via The Verge)