New York Times brings Facebook to your bathroom mirror

Can’t keep your fingers of from Liking something on Facebook even in your bathroom? Though using any kind of mobile device in the bath room is  faux pas, this magic mirror from New York Times, could be an exception. New York Times research lab has combined an LCD screen, Microsoft Kinect, a computer and a bathroom mirror to give us a glimpse of the future.

The technology uses facial recognition and voice recognition to pull email, Facebook, twitter, calendar and news based on user preferences. The voice recognition and facial recognition make the mirror experience personal in a shared environment. The magic mirror enhances your shopping experience too. The Kinect camera scans the body image of the user and provides a virtual try option by overlaying clothes on the body type.

A nifty mirror for very busy folks. Pretty cool.

The mirror also have the ability to scan RFID tags and bring up information about a sample product. For instance, if you had a medication and were unclear of the proper dosage, holding it up to the mirror would supply this information as well as offer the ability to reorder the drug if it was acquired through a prescription. When it comes to online clothes shopping, the mirror used the Kinect camera to scan an image of a user’s body type and allows the user to overlay clothing items on the body image to virtually try on clothes before purchasing them.

Not sure if scanning RFID tag is the most appropriate use of a glorified bathroom mirror. How often would you scan a product which is already in your bathroom? Checking email and Facebook are serious tasks in today’s world. Scanning RFID tags for products in the bathroom? Not so serious.

I sincerely hope people don’t use this ‘mirror’ for video conferencing.

Watch the video of this cool technology :

PS : Since NYT thinks of this as a bathroom mirror, can I use it in my living room?

Via DigitalTrends