Read the statement by Michael Teeuw here.
Magic mirror super smart coffee tables
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Hi I have and old nice size coffee table with a glass center I’ll upload pictures soon. What I wanted to do is add 2way mirror film maybe 2 layers if need and deck it out with monitor and raspberry and add Alexa. I also wanted to add facial recognition and 2 wireless qi chargers in the under side of the glass also want to add IR blaster and was also thinking to instead of facial recognition I could do a finger print scanner to turn it on. If you have any ideas to what else I could add I know its early and I didnt upload any picture but I’m sure you can get the idea table is about 4x6 foot also maybe a few USB ports for powering phones and ps4 controllers thanks guys in advance for any input I’m really excited about this build
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facial seems it would be hard as you are at an angle most of the time… but nice ideas…
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@sdetweil I was thinking that as well and the pir motion sensor would go off unintentionally so maybe finger print would be best if I could get it to work through the glass doubt it just to activate it but the chargers would stay on all the time but the wireless chargers work through the glass I tested it so that’s pretty sweet
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@leeno Just make sure that the mirror film doesn’t have any (ferrous) metal pigments.
Induction charging and metal doesn’t mix that well (a smart charger will stop charging if there is metal in between, but otherwise it will heat up the metal object).Induction charging works beneath most materials that isn’t metal (if you have wood around the glass center you could thin out the wood to be 3-5mm thick and the charger should work through that as well, depending on the charger that is).
as for turning it on, adding a proximity sensor or light/color-sensor should do the trick as well (like the ones that is fitted in to current smartphones), they do come in break-out boards forms and are relative small and easy to hide.
Going this way you could just wave your hand (or anything basically) over the sensor and it would light up.If you don’t wan’t the mirror finish you could go with black tint instead, as it would look more stealth than a mirror film when the screen is off.
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Hmm. Interesting idea. I haven’t seen a glass-topped coffee table with a mirror in it. That could be interesting. I would suggest you try placing a piece of mirror glass (or just a mirror) on top of your coffee table and start looking at angles. You may find that you’ll see a great reflection of the ceiling all the time and if you’re like me, your ceiling isn’t all that interesting.
And if you do get a reflection of a person, you’ll have a beautiful shot up their nostrils.
I think @broberg has a good idea: Go with tinted glass instead of a mirror. That way it will blend in with the coffee table and the writing will appear when you need it. Other than that, I think you have a really solid idea.
Microsoft had some prototype coffee tables with multitouch capability. Before they reused the branding for tablets, they were called Surface Tables. There are tutorials out there to create your own without the $5,000 price tag. I think you could get 75% of the way there with much less time & effort.
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@bhepler yah I seen those surface table I wanted mine to be more discreet and look more sleek also I will look into the tinted glass but I’m sure I seen glass mirror top tables and coffee tables before but that’s great you pointed that out I’ll look into it more
