Google software engineer Max Braun has invented an elegant Android-powered mirror, and it is something people might want in their homes right now. Braun posted the results and photos — which look almost unreal — of his project on Medium.
Android-powered smart mirror
In the wild new era of smart objects, there is a lot to be desired, as is evident from the ideas we saw at CES. Some products worth mentioning are the new Samsung refrigerator with a gigantic touchscreen, and this makes the elegant mirror concept exciting.
Braun’s mirror shares the same information that is displayed on an Android phone, such as the weather, the time and the day’s top headlines. The mirror’s UI updates automatically, thanks to the Android APIs for news and weather. With the help of Google’s mobile app, it can even listen for questions with the voice search feature. Its usage somehow makes more sense on a bathroom mirror.
“Other concepts I’m playing with are traffic, reminders, and essentially anything that has a Google Now card,” Barun says in his Medium post.
Talking about the project, the Google software engineer said that to get such a slick result, he had to experiment a bit. Braun added that he is not done with the tweaking. It is expected that we will see more of such ideas at the next CES.
Google making homes smart
This mirror will surely push forward Google’s ambition to become the thread that ties together the smart home world. At CES this year, several companies revealed their first plans to use Google’s new Internet of Things platform and language, Brillo and Weave (announced in March 2015).
Asus plans to announce a smart home bridge built on Brillo to help users of other Asus smart home products connect with their Android phones in a much easier manner. Kwikset is working on a smart door lock based on Weave, which also is expected to make it easy to connect to Android phones. Marvell announced a Wi-Fi chip that speaks Weave.
Though the details are still extremely basic, they do indicate that Brillo and Weave are moving forward. Such products will surely encourage other companies to build smart home products based on Google’s new platform. Soon we might find them connecting many different bits of our home.
