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.
Show HN: Make a programmable mirror
61–70 of 139 posts
Re: Show HN: Make a programmable mirror
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
How far have you gotten on your project? The idea of a mirror I could wave at to change the information display on is pretty tempting.
I wonder if you could also rig up a few microphones to enable touch controls. I remember reading an early Stephenson novel, where a stereo system was described as a blank black slate, with essentially invisible controls. Having something like that behind a mirror would be a fun hack. edit: Or do this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10205457
It depends on the thickness of the two way mirror, but you may be able to get touch by removing the protective glass from the android tablet so that the digitizer is in direct contact with the mirror.
Re: Show HN: Make a programmable mirror
#63I'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.
Re: Show HN: Make a programmable mirror
#64It 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.
Maybe add a motion sensor to it?
Solid point. Maybe just a cheap wide angle lens from ebay and use easy off the shelf background subtraction from opencv at a low frequency as an easy of motion detection. I'm trying to think of ways to avoid integrating external peripherals that aren't part of the phone.
Re: Show HN: Make a programmable mirror
#65I'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.
Does a service like wit.ai help you out at all?
Re: Show HN: Make a programmable mirror
#66Super 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?
Re: Show HN: Make a programmable mirror
#67I'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.
Does a service like wit.ai help you out at all?
Haha, I'm using wit.ai for the actual command processing. But for the activation hotword (to turn on streaming to wit.ai), I'm trying to use Sphinx.
Re: Show HN: Make a programmable mirror
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seconded.
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.
I think if this is considered a major quality of life improvement, you might be measuring the wrong metrics
Re: Show HN: Make a programmable mirror
#69I 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?
Re: Show HN: Make a programmable mirror
#70I 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!