Useful Scraps
During the COVID era, we got a little restless so bought ourselves a smart mirror for workout. It sat on a wall and had a screen inside with a floating instructor. Well, a few years later that company got bought and kind of went under, so we didn’t have a use for it anymore.
Meanwhile, I had a scrap Rapsberry Pi sitting unused in storage. I wondered, could I breathe life back into this mirror and make it fully customizable?
Process
1. Swapping the Hardware
The hardware plan went through a few iterations. I took it apart, identified every PCB board (like 6 of them), and figured out what to gut.
The original screen and screen controler stayed, power board and speakers stayed. Replace only the brains, and removed the unnecessary extras.
2. Operating System
Turns out this is a solved problem, mostly for storefronts with screens. It would run Rapsberry Pi with MagicMirror software that served as kind of a proxy OS. Easily customizable with custom widgets and JSON-based configuration.
3. Interface Design
How do you design an interface that doesn’t take any human interaction? Keep the data fresh, relevant, but dynamic.
I was aiming for a way to show workouts though in a helpful way that was also beautiful, dynamic, and non-interactive. Here’s a few iterations.
UI Options Explored
Option 3: Constellation
I landed on a constellation of workouts, pulled from a list of my favorite exercises and categories. To make it more galactic, I threw a James Webb photo behind it and blended in the edges. Here’s the prototype:
“What is this, a universe for ants?”
