Introduce yourself!

[CCoates]

HI I’m Chris, 32 Financial Software Specialist (tech support basically) from Newcastle, UK.

Been a Pi user for about a year I have 3 at present, 1 running a robot coded with Scratch (with my Son 7)
a Pi zero runing Kodi
a third in the post …

Currently aquiring parts to make a magic mirror after reading about in the Magpi Magazine

My coding experience is so far limited to scratch and i (somehow) figured out a code to connect my pi to my NAS box

[jreyes]

Hello! Johann here, programmer by day, and programmer by night too, weekends also! Started building my version of a smart mirror and doing research found magic mirror and community. Full of ideas and inspiration, good place to see explore the cutting edge of mirror technology!

So hi everyone.

[psk]

Hey guys! greetings from India.
My name is Prasanth, and I’m 24. Used to be a software engineer. Recently, I got a knee injury while playing football,
had to undergo surgery and I’ll on bed rest till January.

So hat’s how I came across magic mirror. Oh! the forum!! this is brimming with creativity. so good to be part of it.
I’m new to pi and nodejs and I’ve been following this for 3 weeks now, and the support seems to be amazing. \m/

My raspberry pi is on the way :D. Hopefully I will get to setup one for myself. and some day may be contribute to the community.

I’ve seen some voice recognition modules here. so thought of making one myself using IBM’s watson speech to text API.
I’m still working on it. you can find it here.

see you around guys. Cheers.

[darrene]

Hi all, Darren here from the UK. I’m 44 and just started my first MagicMirror2 project.

I’ve had a play with Evan Cohen’s Smart Mirror in the past which I like and will at some point possibly try to merge some of the code into my MagicMirror.

I have an Iiyama 27" LED monitor on the way and some 2-way acrylic. In the meantime I’m developing my install on an RPI3

The idea I have for my mirror workflow goes along the lines of;

1. facialrecognition -> detecting someone wakes the mirror up
2. person not recognised -> the mirror displays a default set of modules
3. person is recognised -> the mirror displays a lightweight personalised set of modules (ie calendar, fitbit, time to work if it’s a weekday, time to town if it’s a weekend)
4. speech recognition to bring up other modules as needed

It’s a bit of a mountain to climb given that my JS and Python skills are non-existent at the moment :)

[strawberry 3.141]

@darrene there are face and voice recognition modules already built

[cowboysdude]

I LOVE Evan’s mirror… the voice stuff is quick but you are limited to 50 calls per day…

PLUS there is NO way to make 3rd party modules for it… you come here and you can request things to have your mirror do and someone builds it… why? Because they want to :)

Evan has no plans for 3rd party modules which means whatever is there you have and that’s it.

I played with his and still have an SD card with a running mirror on it but I kept coming back to this one because of the possibilities… people develop amazing things all the time…

Since being here people have helped me greatly!! NFL module, Scheduler module…the list goes on and on NOT to mention a small Alarm clock mirror… that people basically build software to help with that such as a Touch alarm…

Evan is an awesome guy but like I said it’s limited… I needed/wanted it to do more… to fit me.

Because of this place and with a TON of help my next plan is a 32" livingroom mirror that can run my house… it’s being worked on… new territory takes time :)

@strawberry-3-141 has built a voice module that already controls several modules here… @paviro has built facial recognition for this mirror that works well … speech recognition is a tall order but I believe sooner or later it’ll get done…

Gotta remember a Raspberry pi can only handle so much… that’s why my 32" will be run on a full size motherboard [laptop or micro board, not sure yet]…

These are ALL great people doing great things to help many to fit their mirrors to their needs… it’s pretty amazing.

[darrene]

Thanks for the welcome both - @cowboysdude, I couldn’t have put it better. That’s what led me here to be honest - the thriving community and the comprehensive, pluggable modules :)

I like the way Evan’s mirror works but I think I need to emulate/build on that using MM2 and cherry-picking some modules as my starting point.

I’ve been playing around with some of the 3rd party modules already (I love the remote control!) and I’ve had a quick try with the facial recognition - I need to sit down for longer with that. I almost got there having gone through the training, then just hit a few snags

I’ve been dithering over which voicecontrol module to run with. I’ll probably try the various offerings one-by-one and see which seems a natural fit

I’ll look forward to seeing the 32" project unfold - that’s a monster! :) I must admit I’ve been thinking that with the workload imposed by the various recognition modules It might pay to move to a small laptop to do the heavy-lifting, but then it seems to make sense to go the Windows 10 route, as the realsense camera, cortana, etc are built in and I’d benefit from gesture controls out of the box, which shifts me away from the MM environment…

I think I’m going to start small and work my way up. As I add more functionality, if the Pi starts to struggle that might signify the point at which I need to build a second, laptop-powered mirror with more whistles and bells

[cowboysdude]

OH I agree!! Sounds like you are on the same road I am… @strawberry-3-141 helped me today… there is a module but I wanted it to do something a little bit different so I tried my hand at tweaking it… I was close but he showed me the error and it works now! HUGE Thanks @strawberry-3-141 by the way!!

I don’t know if you realize this and some don’t … some of the people building stuff and helping us all out don’t even have mirrors!!! THAT is utterly and mind blowing amazing!!!

The 32" will be a while :) Yes honestly I was really thinking laptop motherboard… quieter can get smaller power supplies to run them :) OR a mini ITX you can use laptop power supplies on some of them too!

So in a nutshell I’m waiting on an open source thermostat that runs the heating/cooling and is wifi AND bluetooth… then I’ll get to building the actual mirror itself… [MY parents have a 40" TV they don’t want or need soooooooooo LOL]…

Welcome and I’m glad you’re here… learning is awesome and it can be fun!

Thanks to @MichMich , @ianperrin , @strawberry-3-141 and all the other developers!!! Too many to mention!

[JediJah]

Hi All,
I’m Shonari. I’m 34 and live in Brooklyn, NY. I work at a startup building cellphone charging kiosks. Love to make and have a new found affinity for Raspberry Pi. Made a MagicMirror last December and recently decided to upgrade it to a Pi3 and MagicMirror2. Love the modules. Thanks to all those who contribute their time to this great project.

Cheers,

[cowboysdude]

Welcome @JediJah

[ceerix]

Hello everyone,

I’m Alex and I’m from Bavaria :).

Yesterday i have finished the hardware and building stuff of my first magic mirror. I like this project very much and I absolutely appreciate the work of the developers for the great software and modules!

[Jopyth]

Hi everyone,

I am Joseph (23) from Potsdam, Germany and study software engineering (almost finished). When I saw this project, I knew I wanted a mirror, and when the basic hardware was working, I started messing up other people’s modules with my wild ideas. :D Gonna post some pictures of the mirror, in the present your mirror section soon.

Then I implemented a few modules on my own and there is so much I still want to do, but so little time.

Hopefully I will present the project (both hard- and software) at my university and see if I can inspire more people to join in, and build an amazing Magic Mirror.

Best regards, Joseph

P.S.: Anyone living in the Berlin / Brandenburg area, my VBB module is hopefully ready for the public soon (unfortunately not yet).

[done]

Hi, I’m Dominic, 42 yrs old, married with one 2,5 years old boy and a 1,5 year old twin couple (girl and boy).
We live in Berlin, Germany.

I learned about the original magic mirror from a friend and started crawling for information. That’s about a year ago.
After a while I intensified my search and since my wife and children are in my wife’s country for some months, I had time for this project.
Well, at least I thought I have enough time.
You know: “If a man says that he will do it, he will! You don’t have to remind him every 6 months.” :D
Now they are soon coming back and I have a deadline.
Module assembling is as finished as it can be - always new cool mods that need to be tested ;) - and I go for the hardware.

This project - the magic mirror - is really great. Probably the best idea I found on the web for a good while.
For me the mirror will be the main info board, a family calender to plan the days and weeks when the kids going to anniversaries, hobbies and other appointments. Shopping list etc.

I really like the community. It is a very good size. The communication is very friendly. The input and ideas are great.
Unfortunately I’m not a programmer. So the best I can do is to have an idea that hopefully one of you guys like too.

cheers
done

[Jopyth]

@done said in Introduce yourself!:

You know: “If a man says that he will do it, he will! You don’t have to remind him every 6 months.” :D

Exactly.

I wanted a mirror since January, and finished around June. :D

[Kathy120]

Hi all,
I’m Katherine Vann from Canada. I’m a newbie here and I would like to share my thoughts and ideas with you all. Also I would like to get opinions from you all.

[DirkS]

Hi i’m Dirk from Germany. I’m 35 years old and an application engineer for laser marking systems in industries.

Collecting a lot of hobbies such as Modding, Networking, Renovation, Garden, building things in general.

It was very nice to get in touch with the Magic Mirror Project and started to build my first. Searched a very long time for a good place that it can be a part of our daily life. Found it a couple of month later and resulted in an InWall Mirror. Will be completed soon! :D

Nice to be here!

regards
Dirk

[iMAGiC]

Hi everyone,
I am Jake Huang 42 from Taoyuan, Taiwan, a barcode scan engine sales in Taiwan and China.
Thanks for the Magic Mirror project and all module authors, I am finding customized f/w panels and parts for it for my new house. I will build a big and wide mirror in the living room with multiple RPI and Apple TV(for photo slideshow only, can’t find better than it) behind mirror use motion detection to control panels and ac power.
Hoping that my idea could be achieved :)

Best regards,
Jake

[MajorTingz]

Hi all,

I’ve been posting here for the last few days so I thought I’d finally introduce myself!

My name is Ad, i’m 27 and work primarily in the youth work and development sector. I enjoy tinkering as a hobby but would not consider myself an expert by any means, more of a Jack of all trades, master of none.

I’ve built 2 mirrors so far, the first was a very hacky job using a throw away monitor from a youth center I used to work at and some spare parts I had from previous RPi projects, it uses an RPi 2 and runs Smart-mirror which has hotword detection etc.

I then started building my second mirror which uses MagicMirror2 and so far I have found the experience spot on. It’s been very reliable and easy to use and I love the fact that the modules gives everybody control to make their own mods, Smart-Mirror relies primarily on it’s creator to issue the updates which can be cumbersome when trying to customise the mirror for each user.

Don’t be afraid to say Hi! I’ve posted a picture below of my second mirror, when it’s complete I will post the rundown in the show off your mirror section.

That’s enough from me! Take it easy…

Ad

[Pi-Gi]

@MichMich Great stuff this Magic Mirror is.A little about me…

I am a service advisor for Mercedes Benz. I enjoy technology and building things. Mostly wood working, planters decks, trellace–you get the idea.

I was “into” computers when the Timex silcalire was out, but never got into programming past Basic language.

But when I saw this MM, I was like wow!! I want to make this for my daughter.
SO I bought a RPi and it sat for months until I saw this forum for MM2.

I have set up the MM2 interface and will definitely need help from you guys for setting things up.

Thanks for making this forum!

Happy Holidays to all!!

[in_a_days]

Howdy, I’m John. I’m a 35 year old punk rock nerd living in Las Vegas, NV.

I play in a band and own and operate a commercial recording studio. I’ve always been a computer guy and studied C++ in high school, 15+ years ago.

I don’t consider myself a particularly skilled craftsman, so I recruited a good friend to help with assembly. He is a general contractor with access to tools and knowledge of how to build a professional looking frame. I think we’re going to attempt our first monitor debezel this weekend. We are very excited!

Thank you so much for creating this resource, and thanks to all the folks that have shared! I’m still trying to refresh and update my programming knowledge - hopefully I’ll be able to contribute to this shared information in the near future.