Figure 1: Smart mirror
A rather easy and cool project, this one updates your mirror with ability to tell weather and time as and when you stand in front of it. The task is accomplished through placement of a monitor behind a normal one-way mirror and then casting images over monitor with BeagleBone. The frame, monitor, as well as mirror can be made with hands with the help of some wood. The back of this mirror is going to be a bit heavy so be prepared for that.
But you can always alter that part by making a few modifications. You can always use alternatives for keeping the costs under control. For example, you can always use an acrylic panel with a film in place of one way mirror and let the project stay soft on your pocket. Once you are able to hook up the monitor behind the frame, half of your job will be done. Be careful in terms of supports and bolts as slight carelessness or loose connection can mess up things easily. Once, you are sure of everything on this front, you can move over to the software details.
The maker of this project used BeagleBone black in form of a simple linux computer that is capable of running a distinct webpage. For the webpage, he used simple weathers that keeps updating the weather news at a gap of every few minutes. You can create your own web page and connect it with some other weather application as you see fit. Even on this raw level, the complete system will start working, Rest is the final finishing part. As you can see in the picture, the mirror, at present, is displaying the information through an ethernet cable, but you can always configure it to use wi-fi with the help of a simple USB adapter. What we have tried here is to share a simple hack with you, you can always modify it to use as per your requriements and expectations.
Filed Under: Reviews