Through interviewing with my friend who lives in New York, I find mirror to be an interesting everyday object to design around. Being one of the first thing that we have interaction with every morning, it communicate by merely showing reflection, at the same time communicate so much that it already is somewhat described as an 'enchanted object' in fictions and fantasies. I want to created a mirror that respond and 'acknowledge' when it is being approached and being used.
The goal of this project is to figure out how to embed the ultrasonic sensor (HC-SR04) and two kind of led lights to achieve three state:
1. When the person is far away from the mirror, e.g. more than 3 meters away (In the prototype : >30cm), both lights are off.
2. When the person is approaching the mirror, e.g. 1.5-3 meters away (15-30cm), a mild blue light is on.
3. When the person is using the mirror, e.g. less than 1.5 meters away. (<15cm), a bright white light is on.
At the beginning of the project, I wasn't sure which type of sensor I should use. Most smart mirror products that already exists are using mirror as the extension of the screens and thus interactions are limited to interaction we have with our phones, tablets and other touch screens. These interactions doesn't exist with a normal mirror, which makes me feel obligated imaging having mirror as another screen in my life. Instead, I think the interaction we have with a mirror is very quiet and subtle, almost invisible. That's why I decided to use distance as an indicator.
Information should be considered together with the form and materiality of the object. What interaction/function/emotion does it already afford. One memory I have about interacting with a mirror is wiping the steam away to see myself clearly or blowing air onto the surface, write letters and watch it slowly disappear. This could be a trigger of displaying a message, disappearing of a message, an input or something else that makes sense.
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