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    A New Chapter for MagicMirror: The Community Takes the Lead
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    touch screen not working through acrylic mirror

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    • H Offline
      hadyn
      last edited by

      Hi this is my first post so here goes
      I stumbled on this forum as most of you probably did with the intention of building a magic mirror.
      mine will not be powered by a raspberry pi but by a laptop and it will be a full size 6 ft by 3 ft one.
      the problem I have encountered already is that the acrylic 2 way mirror 3mm sample sent to me by a company does not allow me to touch the screen so to speak.
      I have a 27 inch capacitive multi touch monitor that I would like to use behind the mirror but when I place the acrylic on the screen it won’t allow me to activate anything on the screen and doesn’t recognise my touch.
      question is do I need to change the monitor or look for another acrylic that will work ?
      thanks in advance for any help and keep up the good work…

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • KirAsh4K Offline
        KirAsh4 Moderator
        last edited by

        Either do not use the acrylic piece (so no mirror), or search the forum for those who have tried using reflective film.

        A Life? Cool! Where can I download one of those from?

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • H Offline
          hadyn
          last edited by

          does anyone know how the big commercial mirror me photo booths work ? do they use an ir overlay

          cowboysdudeC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • bheplerB Offline
            bhepler Module Developer
            last edited by

            Acrylic is a plastic and as such is not conductive. The capacitance touch screen works by your body’s natural conductivity. Your finger touch disrupts an electrical field and that disruption is measured to determine where you touched it. The acrylic mirror is an effective insulator and will prevent your touch from registering.

            If this blog/advertisement on photo booths is accurate, they use a Microsoft Kinect to perform motion tracking on the subject. Now adapting that would be an interesting RPi project!

            For more information: How Do Touch Screens Actually Work?

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            • cowboysdudeC Offline
              cowboysdude Module Developer @hadyn
              last edited by

              @hadyn Yes. It’s an IR overlay.

              The only way your touch screen will work is putting mirror film on the monitor screen…

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