

NYT R&D Lab uses Kinect to make 'magic mirror' for bathroom surfing - mrsebastian
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/94751-the-new-york-times-magic-mirror-will-bring-shopping-to-the-bathroom

======
phsr
Obvious issue with this: You are placing cameras in the bathroom. You are a
hack away from providing live feeds of a bathroom users.

------
roc
I could see a mirror computer for showing things like weather, appointments,
pill reminders and maybe some quick news clips or a news scroll.

And of course, there's an opportunity for interactive apps, such as the 'tooth
brush watcher/timer' that ensures you're getting good coverage over each
section of your teeth for a decent amount of time. And similarly for flossing.

(Though they'd need to do better work in fog-free mirrors than has been done
thus far. Because every one I've owned has had its coating lose effectiveness
in a few months.)

But what this really begs for, is a continuous computing environment: a whole-
house computer that can take your session with you from the bathroom mirror to
the bedroom mirror, to the surface-style kitchen table and so on, with
speakers and microphones throughout the home so that you can interact with it
even without a screen.

In that situation, the value of a bathroom mirror computer isn't judged in the
context of "will I be in front of this mirror long enough for it to be
useful", but instead in the context of "would I like my whole-house computer
to be able to provide me services here too."

And I think that's a much more compelling case.

~~~
asolove
Idea: mount a Kinect on a robotic arm, then hooked up the servos to the
Kinect's human movement detection so that the Kinect can follow you moving
through a large space.

Hmm, what could I do with that?

~~~
sliverstorm
Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

[http://wiredcontroller.com/wp-
content/uploads/2011/04/196903...](http://wiredcontroller.com/wp-
content/uploads/2011/04/196903-portal-2-wheatley_header.jpg)

------
wccrawford
It's cute, but...

"On average we spend an hour in the bathroom every day"

And only about 3-5 minutes of that is spent in front of a mirror. And even
less is spent looking at said mirror. Why would I slow down brushing my teeth
to play which-tie-should-I-wear with my mirror? The closet is right around the
corner.

~~~
waitwhat
_On average we spend an hour in the bathroom every day_ [citation needed]

Honestly, that statistic doesn't even pass the smell test.

~~~
mrsebastian
Believe it or not, it's from a survey by the National Association for
Continence...
[http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/WolfFiles/story?id=93103...](http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/WolfFiles/story?id=93103&page=1)

------
jachreja
Hopefully someone should get a kick out of my story: Over memorial weekend of
this year, my new 360 250gig Slim and entire 360 collection was stolen out of
my home.

What they did not take: My kinect and small collection of 2-3 kinect games.
Perhaps "Dance Central" Scared them off.

Seeing hacks like this for the kinect has given me something to do with it
while I waited for an appropriate deal/time to purchase a new system, but
honestly it's a little bit creepy.

I do not think the average consumer would be okay with a camera/internet
connected device with a camera in their bathroom. That being said, coolest
hack since the head tracking.

------
BonoboBoner
There goes the last room we dont spend our time starring at screens.

------
msutherl
My friends at Supertouch (also in NYC) who have been doing work with
'interactive mirrors' for years won't be happy about this article:
<http://www.supertou.ch/>

------
huhtenberg
Ingenious! Now I can be stuffed with genuine NYT ads even when taking a leak!
Can't wait!

Seriously though - it's a great tech, but their focus on ad revenue at the
prototyping phase is disturbing.

~~~
198d
Sarcasm aside, the fact that this sort of thing is being developed at what,
I'm pretty sure, most people would consider a _newspaper company_ is pretty
fascinating in and of itself.

------
par
This looks pretty cool and futuristic, just not sure how extremely useful it
is. But anything that brings us closer to our inevitable, dystopian, blade
runner-esque world, I am all for.

------
th0ma5
i'm kind of sick of NYT co-opting a lot of things that the whole experimental
media community is doing, and not contributing back code, nor even citing
sources.

