Venus is a smart mirror that encourages self-love among college students. Integrating a two-way mirror, a monitor, and a Google AIY Voice Kit, the smart mirror is controlled by voice and is able to display and broadcast real-time weather, schedule, and inspiration quotes, etc. It also helps with presentation training and recording.

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vision

In the fast-pace modern world, it is often reported that young adults live under the pressure and expectation of society, family, and peers. Suicide rate constantly increases among people under 30 years old, reflecting the significance of psychological health. While technology advances rather quickly, allowing humans to connect and communicate with each other through phones, computers, and social media, we lack the chance to communicate with ourselves. Our team thus hope Venus could make people enjoy the process of looking in the mirror and talking to their heart, and that it could allow young adults to understand their physical changes and psychological needs. Ultimately, Venus hopes to build up confidence among the users, encouraging them to know and embrace themselves.

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Product details

Considering that touching the mirror would stain the glasses, we abandoned the traditional way of interaction through touch screen. Instead, Venus relies on voice interactions. We used a two-way mirror, which is reflective from one side and transparent from the other, to make the mirror both reflective (as normal mirrors do) and transparent (to show the monitor underneath). Venus is able to sync the user's Google calendar to remind him/her of upcoming events and dress codes, to help the user better prepare for the day. Venus also displays weather report and corresponding suggestions for clothing, sun-glasses, and umbrella. Realizing that people often practice important presentations in front of a mirror, we also display a mock-up presentation scene and encourage the user to record their practice presentations using our embedded microphone. In the future, we wish to add a visual module to allow the user to keep track of the change of his/her body and to recognize different users of the family.

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Engineering Details

The monitor behind the mirror is controlled by a Raspberry Pi MCU, which interacts with the Google AIY voice kit.