Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?

Let's log onto Hot or Not.com to find out!

Seriously though, cool idea, but prohibitively expensive.

Cool so when it's turned on you get a crappy display, and when it's turned off you have a mirror covered in finger smudges.

If it was apple branded it would be the coolest thing EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It would be hooked into your iTunes...and you could stream pictures of people bathing to your apple tv.....

You know some perve is going to hack this to see the girl next door.

It's not like you can really read the text *while* paying attention to your reflection (such as to comb your hair or pop a zit or whatever). So you really just have to focus on one or the other. Wouldn't it be better to just have a display next to the mirror, and look from one to the other as needed? Assuming you REALLY can't pull yourself away from your computer for a couple minutes.

It wouldn't be as impressive, but would make far more practical sense, I'd think.

Very cool idea.. unfortunately just as unpractical.
If they re-think the design I believe this could be something common to most households in the near future.

does it come with the asian fella that's actually controlling everything and trying to look inconspicuous as you take a dump and watch hentai on your mirror?

you know... i think you are right about the kid controlling everything... was this a non-working prototype?

I was kind of suprised that some undergrads had the money to put together such a device.

What if someone hacks into the device and can then take the video feed and post in on the internet!!?!?! Or some crazy stuff like that... I mean I don't mind people looking at me but still scary!!!

Stop saying "basically"

I fail to understand why one needs to have a video of one's self in a mirror, which takes longer to control than stepping a little closer to the mirror in order to put on the contacts (or whatever). Over engineered product... and yet still suffers from finger smudge nightmare.

catbutt: well if you're drying yourself off with a towel or something, maybe... but you're right, i really can't say this would be all that practical.

Ok, am I the only one looking at this as the solution to having to leave the bathroom?

If it was apple branded it would be the coolest thing EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It would be hooked into your iTunes...and you could stream pictures of people bathing to your apple tv.....

Inigo, you've spent more time commenting on apple tv than anyone else has. Honestly, move along - stop clogging up the tubes.

It'd be cooler if it really was a "smart mirror", somehow adjusting itself to whether you're leaning in close, light, etc. Or maybe that'd be useless, who knows.

Who needs a mirror when I can beam a video of my face from the mirror. Or maybe i can have 2 extra webcams so i can see the the back of my head...and the underside of my nuts when i'm shaving them.

I was at demonstration yesterday at Waterloo. There was no "touchscreen", the demonstrator was just moving his hand along while someone moved a mouse. Essentially, their project consisted of a computer hooked up to a TV.

Okay, let me explain.

I go to the University of Waterloo (and I'm also a Systems Design Engineering student), and I saw this project yesterday.

It is NOT what you think it is.

1) It was a TV with a piece of reflective glass in front of it.
2) It is NOT a touch screen. The guy touched the screen and the other guy did the action with a connected computer.
3) It was just a computer connected to a TV! Nothing special was going on. The TV displayed what was on the computer. Anyone can do that. It could have just as easily been displaying your Personal Google page and got the same effect.

They basically tricked a bunch of people into thinking it was an actual touch screen mirror, but it was just a computer connected to a big TV.

There were MUCH better projects at the symposium.

Check out www.waterlooSPEED.com for the best project of the symposium. It was a LOT better than this fake crap.

It's basically a touchscreen display.... Who would want to shave by looking at a video image of themselves? Why not try embedding fiber optics into a real mirror...duh!

zachtaylor.org

:)

Touchscreen is the word of the year!

BTW, wtf is that song the guy was hearing??? Some DRM-free Chinese blip-blip!

the video streaming looks crappy to be honest. The only part of it I think works is the green on black text that scrolls stock options and the weather. Why would I need a video of myself to shave? Some of the ideas work pretty well, but there are a lot that just come up useless.

If that thing actually worked at the level those guys want it to, it would be pretty sweet. But that thing seems to chug along like Windows 98. Not to mention that it will get steamy in the washroom. And your hands will be wet, dirty, or REALLY dirty, if you know what im saying.

How about if the mirror could un-reverse your face so that you could see yourself as others see you?

And how about "smart funhouse mirror" capability? A CCD could monitor your actual face and apply creative distortions to the image you see, Photoshop filters and what not.

Even at the working prototype stage, that smart mirror looks fun and useful and it is especially impressive that it is a student project.

The fact that some people fail to comprehend how a feature might be useful does not mean that feature is actually useless. Being able to move your image and being able to zoom your image could both be very useful features indeed; if upon further reflection you still cannot imagine how, rest assured that if this smart mirror ever becomes a shipping product, there will be marketing materials and an instruction manual with pictures and large text to explain it to you.

I find it funny that every single one of the major features had absolutely nothing to do with a mirror. It was just windows Vista, with a few gadgets turned on. Even the shitty voice control is embeded in Vista, and so are the gadgets the demoed, and the video tool. I'm not impressed at all.

I do like the idea of a smart mirror, but this is just a TV behind some two way glass running on vista. I am fairly sure that I could demo the exact same product by taping a glass to my monitor, and having my friend click things as a "touch" them.

Um... I was in Costco a few weeks ago and saw a Phillips LCD Screen / Mirror for sale. I don't think this is a "brand new" idea.

I was at the demo - got to play some Doom on it and comb my hair at the same time.

This is really cool. It'll get abused though...pervs hacking into your bathroom...

Holy Crap - you can scroll down and read the rest of the article !

This project is bogus. I attend the University of Waterloo and I personally went to see this project. They DID NOT have the touchscreen implemented. One of the group members was off to the side using a mouse to control the widgets as the person was pretending to move widgets on the screen.
If you want to see a REAL touch screen mirror, come to the 2008 ECE Design Symposium where my group will be presenting our TRUE touch mirror.