I never got around to using my Raspberry Pi to make a magic mirror on my own time, but thankfully I went to Georgia Tech. I was in a course called ECE4180, or Embedded Systems Design, which required a final project to be turned in as a team. This was my opportunity to propose the idea and form a team of electrical & mechanical engineers to create our a magic mirror.
This magic mirror displays the date, time, traffic time to class, weather, word of the day, and facial recognition for a personalized greeting. This is achieved using a Raspberry Pi due to its size, computing ability, plug-and-play sound & video. In five phases was this project achieved. First, the development of the backend software using Python Websocket Tornado Server was used to make API calls and as a backend system controller. Second, a voice actor was hired to record various greetings and phrases pertaining to the real world data. From this, using Python pyGame library, were we able to develop a prototype for audio. Third, a wooden frame needed to be constructed in order to hide the electrical components and encase the monitor with glued on two way mirror. Then, each software prototype is integrated into a working system, and used towards a monitor display and audio output. Lastly, from the Python Tornado Server we created a front-end display web page that uses the server as a backend for displaying updated data.
The magic in this mirror relies on using a two-way mirror to produce the illusion of an interactive mirror. Two-way mirrors are often used in police interrogation rooms on cop tv shows, where a suspect is interrogated in a brightly lit room with a mirror. Behind that mirror exists the opposite, a very dark room because this prevents light from reflecting through the other side of the two way mirror, causing the other room to be visible. Using this idea, the magic lies in controlling where and what color of light shines through the mirror to be visible, while keeping the remaining area completely black. This is achieved by glueing the mirror to the surface of a computer monitor, and only activating certain pixels or lights, while leaving unused pixels black.
Last but not least, the grandslam all-star team members that composed the "Magic Mirror Squad". It truly was a pleasure.
Anupam Goli - ECE
Evan Davies - ME
Weiyu Li - ECE
