
Show HN: Make a programmable mirror - hannahmitt
https://github.com/HannahMitt/HomeMirror
======
davnicwil
What an absolutely awesome idea. I love things like this that just blend
software and information into the physical environment seamlessly.

I see stuff like this and just think, yeah, now we're living in the future :-D
Kind of reminds you how cumbersome and inappropriate it can be to have to pull
out a dedicated black slab of glass to access all your information.

The future (at least the one I want) without a doubt is information
distributed throughout and blended with the rest of the 'physical' environment
so it can be accessed in a truly interactive, head-up manner, not always
funnelled and filtered through a singular device - be that VR, AR, or just a
load of nicely designed physical interfaces like this one.

~~~
jsingleton
I believe the term for things like this is an 'information radiator'. The
benefit of ambient displays is they're always on so you don't need to seek any
information out. It's just there.

They're quite popular in the agile community. Digital signage and wallboards
everywhere. The downside is you can become conditioned to them and not notice
things over time.

This is quite old but sums is up:
[https://www.atlassian.com/wallboards/information-
radiators.j...](https://www.atlassian.com/wallboards/information-
radiators.jsp)

~~~
pluma
You mean like a wall clock?

~~~
jsingleton
Yes, but why just stop at one clock?

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-MxGvtK2Bk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-MxGvtK2Bk)

~~~
shitlord
Take them with you wherever you go!

[https://i.imgur.com/9tTFJdh.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/9tTFJdh.jpg)

~~~
pluma
Like a portable wall clock? A port-a-clock if you will? What a brilliant idea.
We could affix it to a strap of leather so you can carry it around your waist.
Given a few years we could probably make it so small you could wear it on your
wrist!

------
servercobra
I'm guessing this is based off [1] which uses a normal monitor and a Raspberry
Pi.

This one looks much quicker and simpler than [1], but what if you need to do
anything to the tablet (updates, new app, etc)? Remove it and re-adhesive?

Personally, I've been working on doing the same with an RPi and Hover so I can
wave my hand in front of the mirror to swipe to new screens/info.

[1] [https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/magic-
mirror/](https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/magic-mirror/)

~~~
level
That's funny, I've actually been doing the exact same thing, RPi2 and a Hover.
I have a few blog posts about it here which I was going to post after the
project is finished.[1]

I actually just bought all the wood to build the frame and I'll hopefully be
doing next weekend.

[1][http://alaycock.github.io/blog/](http://alaycock.github.io/blog/)

~~~
Ecio78
If I'm not mistaken, I see that I'm not the only one still using a Dell XPS
M1330 after so many years :)

~~~
level
I got the M1530 back in 2008. Not my primary machine, but it's definitely
reliable.

------
lazaroclapp
Does the device's camera work from behind the one-way-mirror? Specifically,
does the device camera work well enough from behind the one-way-mirror to do
accurate face recognition? (the idea being that it can display different
information for different users and have at least a soft "biometric" privacy
lock).

Also, would color images be displayable through the one-way mirror or only
white will make it intact?

~~~
giancarlostoro
I believe the device is on the side that you only see your own reflection, but
I could be entirely wrong. I base my assumption on the premise you can see the
contents of the tablet from your side.

~~~
lazaroclapp
As I understand it, one-way mirrors let light pass in both directions. To be
used as a "one-way" mirror it relies on the light differential between the two
sides. Namely, it will always look like a mirror to the brighter side and like
a window from the darker side into the brighter side. So, technically, the
"mirror" side is facing you wherever the screen is dark on the other side.
When the screen is bright, then the mirror works as a window. The problem is
that I am not sure how bright is bright, i.e. would a normal color photograph,
displayed against the mirror panel from the other side, be too dark to be seen
through?

Also, I am not sure of is if it distorts the image in some way to have the
mirror panel in between the device's camera and the outside.

------
Kiro
This needs a Kickstarter. I would back it immediately.

~~~
ComteDeLaFere
Seconded.

~~~
Amorymeltzer
Thirded. As someone said elsewhere, this is one of those "okay wow the future
is here" things. This, more than a hover car, would do the trick. Major
quality of life improvement.

~~~
robertfw
I think if this is considered a major quality of life improvement, you might
be measuring the wrong metrics

~~~
Amorymeltzer
This is a mirror that, from only the pictures shown:

\- Tells you the date and time \- Tells you the weather (and suggestions!) \-
Tells you the temperature \- Can list your to-do list and major reminders \-
Shows (personalized!) stock market updates \- Shows xkcd \- Is a mirror

It could clearly do so much more, but on a typical weekday morning before work
that's an easy, efficient way to get a number of morning "tasks" done. Big
deal to me!

~~~
dzhiurgis
So everything your phone does already with a swipe of a finger?

I might be underestimating how this might be important in your daily morning
routine, but I can fairly well tell the weather by looking thru the window. My
alarm is set on phone and I'll have pretty good estimate how much time I've
spend in shower.

To-do looks somewhat useful if you actually update it. It's something your
phone already does. Personally it is almost always empty as I do not put work
items on it.

Stock price and xkcd looks just as gimmicky as first two functions. It always
make me cringe a little when smartphone manufacturers advertise their lock
screens with such widgets.

~~~
maratd
Yes, your phone can do everything that this mirror can and more. Well, except
work as a mirror.

The entire point of this is that this is a household object that you need
_anyway_ , but that it leaks information that might be useful to you. So you
would skip the step of taking out your phone and checking xyz. Yes, you'll
only save 30 seconds or so of your time. But that's every day and that's one
step you don't have to remember to do.

~~~
dzhiurgis
> except work as a mirror.

It does have a front facing camera ;)

------
swamp40
Looks perfect for daily affirmations.

"Good morning, Dave. MY, you look handsome today!"

~~~
mintyfresh
"You're good enough, you're smart enough, and doggone it, people like you!"

------
nivla
Nice work! I first came across this concept a few years back when someone
posted an instructable which I believe he was building a Magic mirror for his
daughter [1]. I re-implemented the idea but with a spooky tone, ie. it is
framed as a regular mirror in the living room and when a guest stares at it
long enough, something spooky jumps into the view. This was done using a VGA
monitor, camera and a netbox pc. It was a fun project. If I were to go at it
again, I would just use a cheap android tablet solely based on price,
simplicity and power consumption. Will also make it useful this time with
display of data that interests me than a novelty toy.

[1] [http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Magic-
Mirror/](http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Magic-Mirror/)

------
rmxt
This is really neat, but not having a spare Android tablet lying around, I'm
left wondering: is there any cost-effective way to magnify a small screen, say
that of a SGS3, to a larger size? Anyone have any tricks of light, like angled
mirrors or prisms, up their sleeves to achieve such an effect in a thin depth?
I don't get the impression that resolution is all that important if all it's
going to be used for is a few lines of monochrome text and symbols.

~~~
matthiasb
If you have a spare screen, this is a nice low cost alternative:
[https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/magic-
mirror/](https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/magic-mirror/)

~~~
rmxt
Thanks. Any suggestions for a purchasable low-cost, low-power, low-medium
resolution, largish screen?

EDIT: Self-suggestion :
[https://www.adafruit.com/products/1287...](https://www.adafruit.com/products/1287...).
and the linked to tutorial has some suggestions.

~~~
harpastum
You can get refurbished 17" monitors from Newegg for about $50:
[http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824195...](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824195011)

If you're using an rPi and don't want to get an adapter, the cheapest HDMI-
input display is this 20" 1600x900px for $90 new:
[http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824112...](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824112027)

------
pwnna
This is really cool! Although the title could be better, initially I thought
this is talking about mirrors that can be programmed to adjust its properties
(like tilt, curvature), much like those fancy telescope mirrors, although I'm
unable to find a link now.

~~~
Mindless2112
There's been research [1] into making programmable thin-film membrane mirrors
[2] using the piezoelectric effect.

[1] [http://prod.sandia.gov/techlib/access-
control.cgi/2004/04126...](http://prod.sandia.gov/techlib/access-
control.cgi/2004/041267.pdf) [2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Membrane_mirror](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Membrane_mirror)

------
eflowers
That weather readout would look great with some slick weather icons:

[https://erikflowers.github.io/weather-
icons/](https://erikflowers.github.io/weather-icons/)

~~~
level
I'm using these for my smart mirror project, and tied them by index to the
Yahoo Weather API.[1][2] There isn't a perfect one-to-one relationship between
the API codes and the icons, but it's pretty close.

My one complaint about the icons is that they flow outside of the boundaries
of what you'd expect them to be contained in, which can lead to some
accidental overlap if you aren't careful with your margins.

[1]
[https://github.com/alaycock/SmartMirror/blob/master/public/j...](https://github.com/alaycock/SmartMirror/blob/master/public/js/data.js)

[2]
[https://developer.yahoo.com/weather/documentation.html#codes](https://developer.yahoo.com/weather/documentation.html#codes)

~~~
eflowers
I have updated these quite a bit, the bounding boxes are fixed and there are
various API mapping a including yahoo. Check it out.

~~~
level
Thanks for the reply! I'll take a look at it soon, I'll definitely grab these
again. I think the version I used was from July, so it's definitely outdated.

------
barcoder
Here's a face tracking version I made a couple of years back:
[https://vimeo.com/13156714](https://vimeo.com/13156714)

It just uses a webcam and detects faces with (the now obsolete) Haarcascading
face algorithm.

~~~
toxik
Did you implement your own Haar wavelet feature cascading classifier?

------
_xzxj
On first glance I thought the mirror said "Wear pants today" as if the mirror
should know whether or not my legs will get cold...

~~~
nialo
Look at the weather report, if [high, expected, min] temperature below X
degrees, suggest pants. Simple!

~~~
jgh
I don't think it's that simple, you should see all the optimists in March in
Canada who are wearing shorts when it's about 5C out!

------
mikado
We made a similar project last year with voice controller

[https://www.facebook.com/mcouzinet/videos/10152455989859166/...](https://www.facebook.com/mcouzinet/videos/10152455989859166/?l=3611472434671373927)

------
pierrec
I wonder if a touchscreen version is doable using the frustrated total
internal reflection technique [1]. Relatively cheap projects have been done
with that technique, but never with a mirror, AFAIK.

It's somewhat different since it requires a sizable box behind the surface and
an internal projector instead of the screen. As for turning it into a mirror,
it might be as simple as adding a two-way mirror under the Plexiglas pane (or
possibly between the pane and the diffuser layer). But this is where
experimentation becomes necessary!

[1]: [http://cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirsense/](http://cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirsense/)

------
natebleker
It would be really cool to add facial recognition at like 0.5hz to the phone
so that it only turns the screen on when you're looking at it. Or
alternatively customize the content based on who's present in front of the
mirror.

~~~
artmageddon
Maybe add a motion sensor to it?

~~~
Raphmedia
Perhaps a light sensor? You are not going to use your mirror in a dark room.
Unless you want the display to show up in the dark, but personally I wouldn't
want that.

~~~
CydeWeys
That wouldn't work during the day if your bathroom has a window (it'd be on
all day).

I think the simplest way to do it would be to tie it in directly to your light
switch. (Note that the light switch wouldn't be controlling power to the
Android device, it would merely be a data signal determining whether the
display should be on.)

~~~
Raphmedia
I'm used to small bathrooms with no windows.

If you have a window, tying it to the light switch would be ideal. Or you
could simply add a small button next to the light switch.

------
knowaveragejoe
I wish this went into a bit more detail about working with the mirror itself.
Do you actually need a 2-way mirror? Or can you simply use something with that
coating on one side?

~~~
hannahmitt
Some mirrors may have a thin enough back coating for light to shine through,
but the two-way is ideal.

------
userbinator
A few years ago it was really popular for home entertainment electronics like
stereo systems and DVD players to use this trick to make the display appear to
be "floating" on a mirrored surface. (Example:
[http://regmedia.co.uk/2011/07/21/philips_bdp7600_blu-
ray.jpg](http://regmedia.co.uk/2011/07/21/philips_bdp7600_blu-ray.jpg) ) More
recently, I've seen people with phones whose screen protector is made out of
this material.

(Personally, the idea of putting a device with a camera and microphone behind
a two-way mirror just feels a bit too much like a telescreen for me.)

~~~
eeZi
> Personally, the idea of putting a device with a camera and microphone behind
> a two-way mirror just feels a bit too much like a telescreen for me.

Tape over the camera, break microphone? But yeah.

------
resc1440
Might want to electrical-tape over the phone's front-facing camera, and maybe
even excavate out its microphone. Just In Case.

------
andrepd
Great idea! It's stunning how this sort of futuristic seeming technology is
actually possible using $50 in consumer electronics!

But passive display of information is only part of the story. You have the
hardware: a microphone and a speech recognition API. Build voice interaction
with this. Even simple commands like "Show me the weather tomorrow", or "Show
me my calendar" add an amazing new depth to it. I can imagine myself, shaving
and idly telling my mirror to show me my appointments today. :)

------
soared
I did something similar, but used Windows 10 and rainmeter, which lets you
place widgets/images on your desktop.
[https://i.imgur.com/LKxxvVI.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/LKxxvVI.jpg)

reddit thread:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Rainmeter/comments/3hzy4b/something...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Rainmeter/comments/3hzy4b/something_a_little_different_smart_mirror_with/)

------
Animats
Decades ago I saw this done for auto rear-view mirrors, at Ford's research lab
in Dearborn. Way ahead of its time.

If you have to operate electronics in a damp environment, use "Fine-L-Kote"
conformal coating on the electronics. Mask all connectors, switches, and the
screen face itself, then spray. Inspect with a UV light to see if you missed
anything. Most automotive electronics gets a conformal coat, but, annoyingly,
most handheld devices do not.

------
knightofmars
I did some research into two way mirror vendors a while ago to hide my TV and
stumbled upon this operation out of Ohio. I never ended up finishing the
project and as such never ordered from them so I don't know much about the
company. They do have a wide range of two-way mirror options.

[http://www.twowaymirrors.com/acrylic/](http://www.twowaymirrors.com/acrylic/)

------
roberthahn
If you want to build an interactive programmable mirror, looks like Nanogest
might be useful:
[http://www.nanocritical.com/nanogest/](http://www.nanocritical.com/nanogest/)
It's available for both iOS and Android.

It recognizes 4 swipe gestures (top, down, left, right) and a wave gesture.

It's a library so you'd still have to build the information display part.

~~~
Drdrdrq
Thanks for the link! Is this really a state of the art right now? I was a bit
disappointed when I saw the video... Gestures look awkward.

~~~
roberthahn
Beats me - I just wanted to see if a library like this even existed.

------
pavel_lishin
I wonder if humidity and steam would be a problem if this was done in a
bathroom.

~~~
asm
We used construction paper to black out the back around the tablet. My guess
is that the paper wouldn't like the humidity but the rest would be fine.
Perhaps you could swap in some black plastic material that would work with
spray adhesive.

~~~
bennettfeely
Wouldn't a coating of black spray paint work just fine?

------
devonoel
Really cool idea, but more importantly, why do some people call a one-way
mirror a two-way mirror? Its only a mirror on one size.

~~~
itsyogesh
Because you can use either side of the glass as a mirror.

------
adanto6840
Not sure if it's this article or not (wouldn't surprise me), but there's a
number of "one way mirror" plastic/acrylic sheets on Amazon, with Prime
shipping. But all of the larger, more practical ones are sold out as of a few
minutes ago, hah. ;-)

Awesome project.

------
mundo
Super cool! Looks like a great anniversary present for the missus. I'm
comfortable doing android development, but for those that aren't, have you
thought of adding some config buttons for setting the birthdays and whatnot
and releasing it in the google store?

------
codingdave
I do like this. It is clever.

But when I did something similar for my family, which displayed everyone's
chores for the day, and any events we had going on, I simply mounted a tablet
on the wall of the kitchen, and wrote a web page to display the info.

------
jonknee
Years ago I stayed in a hotel once that had mirrors like this by the
elevators. They were displaying the current weather and day's forecast I
believe. I've wanted one ever since!

------
danpeddle
Great idea! Repurposing old tablets / mobiles is the cherry on top.
Fascinating how combining otherwise dumb material with smart technology
produces something so compelling.

------
seangarita
This is really cool!

I built one of these with Facial Recognition for my Capstone project.
[http://lookingglass.co](http://lookingglass.co)

------
mholt
This is way more affordable than the same thing I saw at Harrod's for like
$10,000. Awesome project! Can't wait to try this.

------
suyash
Ask HN : Absolutely the coolest thing I've seen in a while. Can someone
explain, how the phone screen is being displayed in the mirror? It is behind
the mirror, it's not in front of it? Since the mirror won't understand touch,
there is no touch based control and one needs to pull the phone out to change
app etc right.

Thanks

~~~
suyash
Answering my own question, secret is in the two way mirror, so no touch and no
camera as the other side would reflect back.

~~~
Jtsummers
You can update it by remoting into the phone or having it pull down
configuration changes from a server periodically.

~~~
icebraining
Or using a USB or Bluetooth mouse - Android supports them out-of-the-box.

------
joshmn
Love this idea, but removing the device (if you have to) is what rubs me the
wrong way.

Anyone have any idea on the implications of mounting the device, say, 3mm away
from the mirror? I think that would be about the depth of a case... and if you
mount it inside a case, you can remove it seemlessly.

------
init0
One of the prediction ->
[https://github.com/hemanth/ama/issues/13#issuecomment-124816...](https://github.com/hemanth/ama/issues/13#issuecomment-124816126)

------
jscheel
I've been working on a voice-controlled one of these. I just got my Raspberry
Pi, but am still working on the software side quite a bit. I'm not really
having great success with CMU Sphinx's hotword detection.

~~~
TsiCClawOfLight
You could try blather. It's by Jezra Lickter.

~~~
jscheel
Interesting, I'll take a look. Thanks!

------
brunorsini
Any suggestions for stores similar to Canal Plastic Center in San Francisco?

~~~
toby
You could try TAP on South Van Ness, they have two-way acrylic mirrors on
their website:
[http://www.tapplastics.com/product/plastics/cut_to_size_plas...](http://www.tapplastics.com/product/plastics/cut_to_size_plastic/two_way_mirrored_acrylic/558)

~~~
zten
I'd suggest finding glass instead of plastic if you can deal with the weight
in order to avoid having a distorted reflection. It should also be cheaper --
it looks like they're charging $33 per square foot for 3/16" plastic.

------
aakilfernandes
Pretty cool. I'd want to try this out on a kindle paperwhite and see if it
would work.

How obvious is the rectangle of light? I can't see it at all in the first pic,
but can make it out a little in the last pic

~~~
maaaats
An OLED screen could solve this, having no light where the screen is black.

~~~
steckerbrett
OLED have terrible burn in though, they don't like being turned on for long
lengths of time.

~~~
pavel_lishin
Someone above suggested adding a motion sensor, so that it would only turn on
when you were in front of it.

------
epalmer
This is a project I could get into. Full Maker on. I like the details provided
and the images. I'm thinking about using some other display than android phone
since I don't have one.

~~~
IkmoIkmo
[http://michaelteeuw.nl/post/111886383522/magic-mirrors-
aroun...](http://michaelteeuw.nl/post/111886383522/magic-mirrors-around-the-
world)

------
thehooker
This is awesome!

It would be nice if this mirror could sync with your main device using wi-fi.
So it would always be up-to-date with your stock options, birthdays and stuff
like this.

------
maresca
I have an old nexus I don't use often and would like to attempt this. Anyone
know of any good mirror suppliers in the south jersey/philadelphia area?

------
swah
Can the "two way mirror" be created with "reflective window tint" (insulfilm
in Brazil) glued onto a transparent acrylic sheet?

------
kevinaloys
This is absolutely fan fucking tastic!!

------
gus_massa
I'd like that the "consider no biking " message had the bike image with a
strikethrough.

------
alwaysdoit
Does the tablet's touchscreen work through the mirror, or is this read-only?

It's still really cool either way.

------
msie
Would using an iPad Pro be overkill?

------
zekenie
I wonder how this would work with the new Raspberry Pi display

~~~
IkmoIkmo
It'd just be an easier version of this

[http://michaelteeuw.nl/post/111886383522/magic-mirrors-
aroun...](http://michaelteeuw.nl/post/111886383522/magic-mirrors-around-the-
world)

------
huangc10
looks awesome! is that an iron ring I see?

~~~
hannahmitt
It is! UofT Comp Eng.

------
cm2187
Heavily influenced by Snow White!

------
g10r
very awesome!

