Google software engineer designs ‘smart mirror’ powered by Android

Google software engineer Max Braun has designed a 'smart mirror' powered by Android, which shows the time, date, weather, a 24-hour forecast and news headlines.

Braun, who showcased his smart mirror in a blog post, made it for himself after failing to find one in the market. He used a two-way mirror, display panel, controller board and other components for his mirror which is similar to the one from Arnold Schwarzenegger's movie The 6th Day.

The user interface leverages code with simple Android APIs like TextClock for the date and time, as also Forecast for the weather and the Associated Press for news. Braun had also wished to add traffic and reminders to the interface.

''The idea is that you don't need to interact with this UI,'' he wrote. ''Instead, it updates automatically and there's an open-ended voice search interface for anything else,'' he said adding that his prototype mirror was still a work in progress.

The mirror is currently powered by an Amazon Fire TV Stick, which runs an Android API that drives the UI. Braun had also experimented with Chromecast and Nexus Player before making the prototype.

According to Braun, it took a bit of experimentation to get such a slick result, though, he was not through finalising the concept. Currently, the mirror's UI updates automatically thanks to Android APIs for news and weather. It can also look for questions with the voice search feature in Google's mobile app.