7 ms·

Magic mirror: One way mirror with a monitor behind it

197 points by redman25 12y ago

Qworg 12y ago
This is impressive! I worked on a project much like this for a client last year. We actually hid a camera behind the glass and could take "mirror selfies". It's a pretty simple add-on if you're making an interactive installation/vanity mirror.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
ars 12y ago
Do that same thing with a TV: http://www.hometime.com/Hometime_4.0/video/VideoCollectorPage/1804.php http://www.hometime.com/Hometime_4.0/video/VideoCollectorPag... Hidden bathroom TV, behind the mirror.
SomeCallMeTim 12y ago
Very cool, though I'm disappointed that it's not interactive. I agree that touch isn't the right choice for a mirror, but that's not the only option. Adding a camera and a bit of OpenCV code could give you a "light" version of a Kinect interface -- broad gestures or hand signs shouldn't be hard to use to change modes. Or a microphone and some voice recognition. Not sure what the open-source state of the art is like, but if you were to burn Android on it, Google has some pretty awesome voice recognition APIs you can use.
- pdenya 12y ago
  Voice recognition is a good thought and totally doable. A camera probably isn't a great choice for a bathroom mirror though.
  - SomeCallMeTim 12y ago
    Good point. :)
- unfunco 12y ago
  The Leap Motion device might be another option. https://www.leapmotion.com https://www.leapmotion.com
  - vanderZwan 12y ago
    It's not, because just like the Kinect it uses infrared, which is blocked by the mirror.
    - jfthiigsegbje 12y ago
      Fine if it's in the bezel.
      - danudey 12y ago
        Or mounted above the mirror.
        vanderZwan 12y ago
        fair enough
- cam_l 12y ago
  Touch can work with the right setup. Know a guy who sells bathroom mirror and splash back setups, along with custom android & Apple interface.. Works pretty well, looks amazing.
- TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
  Chrome has the Web Speech API, but I am not sure about Chromium.
- augdx 12y ago
  Yeah, fun stuff! I wrote the software for this project a couple of years ago: http://www.sester.net/tell-me-the-truth/ http://www.sester.net/tell-me-the-truth/ It used a camera and the faceAPI from Seeing Machines to overlay a digital Andy Warhol on the viewer's face, tracking their motions and saying Andy Warhol-like things periodically :-)
catshirt 12y ago
cool! would be great to hook a kinect up
stevewilhelm 12y ago
"The R&D Lab's interactive mirror is a platform that we've designed to explore how the relationship between information and the self is evolving and how media content from The New York Times and others might play a part. By using a special semi-reflective glass surface, the users of the mirror are able to see both a normal reflection of the real world as well as overlaid, high-contrast graphics. We've dubbed this "augmented reflection". Conceptually, the idea is that our mirror can reveal the halos of data around real-world objects, including ourselves." - NYT Labs, 2011. http://nytlabs.com/projects/mirror.html http://nytlabs.com/projects/mirror.html
genesee 12y ago
Add Nest-like proximity activation and you've got a pretty cool bathroom/bedroom installation!
shalmanese 12y ago
You could also hook up a leap motion to get really simple gesture controls without smudging up the mirror.
INTPenis 12y ago
Ok so I understand that an observation mirror becomes transparent if one side is light but what is not clear from the article is that any bright part apparently becomes transparent. Because I assume the author has a black screen, and white text, causing the white text to shine through the mirror while anything around the text is still black and let's the mirror act as a normal mirror. Also it would be nice to see which observation mirror he used, since he's Dutch I could probably order the same one to Sweden. Ordering from the US is often a hassle.
- _ikke_ 12y ago
  It's not that anything changes in the mirror to make it transparent. Such mirrors are half transparent, half reflective. If the other side is dark, the reflective effect is much larger then the transparent effect, making it look like a normal mirror. When there is a light source behind, the light goes through, which means you can see it. The brighter the light, the more you can see what is behind.
taejo 12y ago
I already have one of these (though the specs call it a glossy monitor)
zacinbusiness 12y ago
This is awesome. I think a cool feature would be to add some speakers and hook it up to some music. Maybe add a little scroll for current artist/track. So many possibilities!
neric 12y ago
How about just sticking an iPad running a custom app behind the mirror, instead of this complicated set up?
- egypturnash 12y ago
  They don't make 24" iPads.
  - utopcell 12y ago
    Lenovo does make 20" and 27" tablets though (their horizon and flex lines)
- utopcell 12y ago
  you probably don't even need a one-way mirror. There exist one-way films you could attach onto an iPad.
napoleond 12y ago
A startup I'm involved with uses this as a platform to serve ads: http://www.advolvemedia.com http://www.advolvemedia.com
stronglikedan 12y ago
The new Acura MDX has something like this for its backup camera. The center rear view mirror looks normal, until you put it in reverse. When you do, the left hand side of the mirror becomes the backup camera monitor, with no reflection. The best part is, you can still see a reflection in the right side of the mirror, so you can use it as normal, and you don't have to look down at your dashboard to see the video feed.
- umsm 12y ago
  Products like this have existed in aftermarket products for a while: http://www.amazon.com/VTB44MC-4-3-Inch-Digital-Monitor-Combination/dp/B007RC238Q http://www.amazon.com/VTB44MC-4-3-Inch-Digital-Monitor-Combi...
hammock 12y ago
People do this with their TVs sometimes, so it doesn't take away from the interior design - http://www.hiddentelevision.com/ http://www.hiddentelevision.com/
HNaTTY 12y ago
Interactivity is one thing, but I'd just like to see a simple motion detector hooked up to the GPIO of the Raspberry Pi, controlling the monitor. It bothers me that this monitor is just on all the time. Detect motion -> refresh the data and wake up the monitor. Or just wake up the monitor since the data is being refreshed quite frequently already. Also, I don't have any complaints about code clarity, everything seems straightforward. Well done!

197 points by redman25 12y ago

Qworg 12y ago

This is impressive! I worked on a project much like this for a client last year. We actually hid a camera behind the glass and could take "mirror selfies". It's a pretty simple add-on if you're making an interactive installation/vanity mirror.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

ars 12y ago

Do that same thing with a TV: http://www.hometime.com/Hometime_4.0/video/VideoCollectorPage/1804.php http://www.hometime.com/Hometime_4.0/video/VideoCollectorPag... Hidden bathroom TV, behind the mirror.

SomeCallMeTim 12y ago

Very cool, though I'm disappointed that it's not interactive. I agree that touch isn't the right choice for a mirror, but that's not the only option. Adding a camera and a bit of OpenCV code could give you a "light" version of a Kinect interface -- broad gestures or hand signs shouldn't be hard to use to change modes. Or a microphone and some voice recognition. Not sure what the open-source state of the art is like, but if you were to burn Android on it, Google has some pretty awesome voice recognition APIs you can use.

pdenya 12y ago
Voice recognition is a good thought and totally doable. A camera probably isn't a great choice for a bathroom mirror though.
- SomeCallMeTim 12y ago
  Good point. :)
unfunco 12y ago
The Leap Motion device might be another option. https://www.leapmotion.com https://www.leapmotion.com
- vanderZwan 12y ago
  It's not, because just like the Kinect it uses infrared, which is blocked by the mirror.
  - jfthiigsegbje 12y ago
    Fine if it's in the bezel.
    - danudey 12y ago
      Or mounted above the mirror.
      - vanderZwan 12y ago
        fair enough
cam_l 12y ago
Touch can work with the right setup. Know a guy who sells bathroom mirror and splash back setups, along with custom android & Apple interface.. Works pretty well, looks amazing.
TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
Chrome has the Web Speech API, but I am not sure about Chromium.
augdx 12y ago
Yeah, fun stuff! I wrote the software for this project a couple of years ago: http://www.sester.net/tell-me-the-truth/ http://www.sester.net/tell-me-the-truth/ It used a camera and the faceAPI from Seeing Machines to overlay a digital Andy Warhol on the viewer's face, tracking their motions and saying Andy Warhol-like things periodically :-)

catshirt 12y ago

cool! would be great to hook a kinect up

stevewilhelm 12y ago

"The R&D Lab's interactive mirror is a platform that we've designed to explore how the relationship between information and the self is evolving and how media content from The New York Times and others might play a part. By using a special semi-reflective glass surface, the users of the mirror are able to see both a normal reflection of the real world as well as overlaid, high-contrast graphics. We've dubbed this "augmented reflection". Conceptually, the idea is that our mirror can reveal the halos of data around real-world objects, including ourselves." - NYT Labs, 2011. http://nytlabs.com/projects/mirror.html http://nytlabs.com/projects/mirror.html

genesee 12y ago

Add Nest-like proximity activation and you've got a pretty cool bathroom/bedroom installation!

shalmanese 12y ago

You could also hook up a leap motion to get really simple gesture controls without smudging up the mirror.

INTPenis 12y ago

Ok so I understand that an observation mirror becomes transparent if one side is light but what is not clear from the article is that any bright part apparently becomes transparent. Because I assume the author has a black screen, and white text, causing the white text to shine through the mirror while anything around the text is still black and let's the mirror act as a normal mirror. Also it would be nice to see which observation mirror he used, since he's Dutch I could probably order the same one to Sweden. Ordering from the US is often a hassle.

_ikke_ 12y ago
It's not that anything changes in the mirror to make it transparent. Such mirrors are half transparent, half reflective. If the other side is dark, the reflective effect is much larger then the transparent effect, making it look like a normal mirror. When there is a light source behind, the light goes through, which means you can see it. The brighter the light, the more you can see what is behind.

taejo 12y ago

I already have one of these (though the specs call it a glossy monitor)

zacinbusiness 12y ago

This is awesome. I think a cool feature would be to add some speakers and hook it up to some music. Maybe add a little scroll for current artist/track. So many possibilities!

neric 12y ago

How about just sticking an iPad running a custom app behind the mirror, instead of this complicated set up?

egypturnash 12y ago
They don't make 24" iPads.
- utopcell 12y ago
  Lenovo does make 20" and 27" tablets though (their horizon and flex lines)
utopcell 12y ago
you probably don't even need a one-way mirror. There exist one-way films you could attach onto an iPad.

napoleond 12y ago

A startup I'm involved with uses this as a platform to serve ads: http://www.advolvemedia.com http://www.advolvemedia.com

stronglikedan 12y ago

The new Acura MDX has something like this for its backup camera. The center rear view mirror looks normal, until you put it in reverse. When you do, the left hand side of the mirror becomes the backup camera monitor, with no reflection. The best part is, you can still see a reflection in the right side of the mirror, so you can use it as normal, and you don't have to look down at your dashboard to see the video feed.

umsm 12y ago
Products like this have existed in aftermarket products for a while: http://www.amazon.com/VTB44MC-4-3-Inch-Digital-Monitor-Combination/dp/B007RC238Q http://www.amazon.com/VTB44MC-4-3-Inch-Digital-Monitor-Combi...

hammock 12y ago

People do this with their TVs sometimes, so it doesn't take away from the interior design - http://www.hiddentelevision.com/ http://www.hiddentelevision.com/

HNaTTY 12y ago

Interactivity is one thing, but I'd just like to see a simple motion detector hooked up to the GPIO of the Raspberry Pi, controlling the monitor. It bothers me that this monitor is just on all the time. Detect motion -> refresh the data and wake up the monitor. Or just wake up the monitor since the data is being refreshed quite frequently already. Also, I don't have any complaints about code clarity, everything seems straightforward. Well done!