The Silicon Review ^Asia

Of all the quirky technological inventions of our time, one of the most creatively subtle devices is - the smart mirror. Built out of a basic Normann Flip mirror for the shell, this smart mirror makes for quite a futuristic piece of technology.

Google X engineer Max Braun, the mastermind behind this project, had previously put together a smart mirror for his dressing room and after years he is now back with a smaller and smarter design. He has published an entire post on medium explaining in detail the process of how one can build this mirror on their own.

This table mirror with a USB coming out the back displays the weather, time, traffic, and more. Max explains how the new prototypes of this model have proved to be quite a useful platform for all kinds of software experimentation. “I’ve been able to build richer user experiences while keeping with the original theme of blending in and staying out of your way”, says Max. “For example, I played with a few different applications of face detection with the front-facing camera. One of them allows you to take pictures simply by smiling”. He also added a light ring along the edge to illuminate what the camera sees.

Although the device is simply an Android tablet placed behind a two-way mirror, the highlight of this software is that it is passive and always available, which is ideally a perfect mechanism where users do not have to think about interacting with the device and the right information is displayed automatically.  Almost like a balancing act!