Smart Mirrors

Who’s the fairest of them all

I enjoyed the movie The Island many years ago. I’m reminded of it a lot when I think about the next phase of vegetarianism that will include lab grown meat. In one scene, there’s a smart mirror that provides results of the main character’s urine analysis.

We’re still some time away from this future, both politically and technologically. There have been many companies coming out with products but both the adoption and applications are still 3–5 years out.

What needs to happen? More edge based vision processing. People don’t really want to have an internet-connected camera or they’re usually placing in mirrors. Local processing can drive augmented reality on device.

The applications also have to be incredible. We’re talking about real time outfits, health tracking, and other cool features. In mirror TV and Alexa are just not going to cut it.

Once enough consumers have such mirrors in their homes and are comfortable with the privacy and security of such devices, then there’s a chance that we’ll hit a tipping point where we can place such mirrors everywhere. This will be one of the final frontier swords voice interaction ubiquity.