Building a Smart Mirror

Abstract

En el món interconnectat en què vivim no ens acabaríem la quantitat d'objectes que podrien ser més intel·ligents. El mirall, per exemple, proporciona una gran superfície ideal per mostrar-hi informació o per interactuar-hi. La majoria de persones tenen miralls a casa i per tant el concepte d'un mirall intel·ligent amb el qual pots interactuar és molt atractiu.

Recentment han aparegut miralls intel·ligents, com el "Magic Mirror" i el "HomeMirror" que han estat desenvolupats dins la comunitat Maker però de moment són força limitats. Aquest Treball de Fi de Grau descriu com es va construir un mirall intel·ligent des de zero utilitzant una Raspberry Pi i un software programat a mida a sobre d'una distribució Linux. L'objectiu d'aquest projecte és crear un mirall intel·ligent que sigui interactiu i a més desenvolupar un software que permeti desenvolupar i instal·lar aplicacions pel mirall.

El mirall intel·ligent es va desenvolupar en quatre mesos començant pel software i finalment integrant-ho tot amb el hardware. Els resultats aconseguits han sigut bons perquè s'ha aconseguit un nivell més alt d'interacció respecte d'altres projectes semblants mitjançant reconeixement de veu, reconeixement gestual i control remot a través d'un smartphone. Durant el desenvolupament van sorgir problemes com per exemple que el vidre no reflecteix prou o que manca fiabilitat amb el reconeixement gestual. Tot i això aquests problemes poden ser resolts més endavant amb més recursos i més recerca.

This project has been developed within the context of a time where every day we see more and more connected devices. The Internet transformed our lives by connecting us more easily to information and other people in the virtual world. Mobile phones then became martphones and since then this concept has erupted and morphed into the Internet of Things, things which connect us to everyday objects. There are no end of objects that could be made "smarter", some being more suited to this than others. Mirrors, for example, provide a large surface ideal for displaying information and interacting with. Most people have mirrors at home so the concept of a smart mirror that you can interact with is attractive and has been fantasized in many futuristic movies.

Smart mirrors, such as Magic Mirror and HomeMirror have recently started to be developed by people in the Maker community, with varying degrees of interactivity. However, so far, the features of these mirrors have been limited. This final year project describes how a smart mirror was built from scratch using a Raspberry Pi for the hardware and custom software built on top ofRaspbian, a Linux distribution. The goal of the project was to create a Smart Mirror device that people could interact with but also to further develop the technology so that it would let you install and develop your own applications for it.

The Smart Mirror was developed in four months, starting with the software and finally integrating it with the hardware. On the whole results were good because a higher level of interactivity has been achieved by being able to use voice commands, gestures and smartphones. A few problems arose in the construction and software side of the project, such as the glass not being reflective enough and the gesture recognition being unreliable but these drawbacks can be addressed by doing more tests and trials to further develop the Smart Mirror.