This home-made Smart Mirror that runs Google Now is the IoT device we all want

When the world doesn’t offer you a Smart Mirror, sometimes you just have to make one yourself. At least, you do if you’re a software engineer at Google with a bit of spare time on your hands. Max Braun created this awesome DIY Smart Mirror in his spare time, and it runs Google Now.

Using a two-way mirror, display panel, some cheap components and a controller board, Braun was able to create a very polished-looking result, right up there with the best Internet of Things products made by actual manufacturers. Perhaps even better. Considering this is a do-it-yourself-in-your-spare-time project, you have to take your hat off to Mr. Braun.

There’s no shortage of home-made Smart Mirrors floating around the internet already, but this one sticks out for being so slick-looking. Working at Google probably doesn’t hurt your chances of getting things right either. To power the whole thing, Braun first used a Chromecast, then a Nexus Player and finally a Fire TV Stick to generate automatic updates for the mirror along with “OK, Google” voice commands.

What is the Internet of Things? 

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At the moment Braun’s Smart Mirror displays pretty much what Google Now does: weather updates, news headlines (via an Associated Press RSS feed) and he is working on traffic updates, reminders and anything else you might see on a Google Now card. As he notes, until he settles on a particular platform he’ll continue to tinker.

Considering Hiroshi Lockheimer, SVP of Android, Chromecast and Chrome OS posted the above tweet when he saw Braun’s efforts, we might just see a Nexus Mirror at next year’s Google I/O.

What do you think of this smart mirror compared to others you’ve seen? What IoT device do you think will take off the most?

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