Smart Mirrors

The term 'smart mirror' is used to describe various bits of technology but in our experience, there are two basic types of smart mirror:

Reactive: A standard mirror that reacts to your presence and delivers a zero-touch user experience. The main advantage of this type of mirror is that you don't need to touch it and hence won't leave finger prints on it.
Interactive: A one-way mirror with a touch-screen display behind it to display information which enables user interaction.

This is a generalisation though and smart mirrors can also feature voice control and gesture control, or may simply be a passive display device. Some even feature the ability to act as a monitor/TV screen or enable video communication.

Smart mirrors are not just a feature of the bathroom. They can be built into wardrobes or kitchens too. The type of smart mirror deployed depends very much on the location and privacy implications. Our preference is very much for the reactive type, with no voice control or camera.

Reactive Smart Mirrors

An reactive smart mirror usually has a proximity sensor to detect a person standing in front of it. It may then automatically control mirror lighting and a heater to stop the mirror misting up. It may also be a passive display device with a screen mounted behind a one-way mirror.

Note: Many commercially available reactive smart mirrors are 'stand alone' products that don't have wider integration with the smart home. Whilst these can still be useful, they lack the context to allow them to deliver the best user experience and also provide context information back to the wider smart home.

Interactive Smart Mirrors

An interactive smart mirror usually features a display mounted behind a one-way mirror and will allow touch screen interaction, gesture control or voice control. These tend to be more advanced but, also come with a number of other issues. The main ones being permissions and privacy.

An interactive smart mirror can display generic information such as weather, news, etc. but as soon as it is required to display personal information, you have to think about who has access to it. If it also allows control of smart home devices, then you also have to consider who might be able to use it.