Smart mirrors aren’t new. But this is the very first one where I reflexively reached into my wallet and threw money at the screen.
Ryan Nelwan, a software engineer, designed this mirror to do way more than previous builds. It shows the time and weather of course. The reflective touchscreen surface also appears to also be capable of playing music, launching a few Mac apps, adjusting home temperature through Nest and even hailing an Uber through the company’s public API.
The wildest part of all is that the mirror seems to work like a giant iPad, capable of distinguishing between one- and two-finger gestures. We see Nelwan tap to open a YouTube video, but slide two fingers up and down to adjust volume. (The smudges must just get out of control, though, right?). He also claims in a Reddit post that window scaling is possible with two fingers.
But is this an elaborate hoax? There’s always the possibility, and his Twitter video makes me wary. It’s also strange that a software developer wouldn’t have mentioned a single thing about the how this mirror works. Nelwan says he’s logged the build process and will be posting updates about it to his Medium, though the page is currently empty. We reached out to Newlan but did not hear back by time of writing.
If it’s real though, this mirror is like something out of Minority Report, except set in a future where everything doesn’t suck. The important question is: when can I buy it?