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

"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

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.

The Leap Motion device might be another option.

https://www.leapmotion.com

It's not, because just like the Kinect it uses infrared, which is blocked by the mirror.

Fine if it's in the bezel.

Or mounted above the mirror.

fair enough

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.

Yeah, fun stuff! I wrote the software for this project a couple of years ago: 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 :-)

Voice recognition is a good thought and totally doable. A camera probably isn't a great choice for a bathroom mirror though.

Good point. :)

Chrome has the Web Speech API, but I am not sure about Chromium.

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.

Products like this have existed in aftermarket products for a while:

http://www.amazon.com/VTB44MC-4-3-Inch-Digital-Monitor-Combi...

Do that same thing with a TV: http://www.hometime.com/Hometime_4.0/video/VideoCollectorPag...

Hidden bathroom TV, behind the mirror.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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!

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

They don't make 24" iPads.

Lenovo does make 20" and 27" tablets though (their horizon and flex lines)

you probably don't even need a one-way mirror. There exist one-way films you could attach onto an iPad.

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

cool! would be great to hook a kinect up