Reflect

Joshua James Smith

‘Reflect’ is a smart mirror designed to offer a discrete self-monitoring feature for an individual living with HIV. Like a diary, it provides users with the means to monitor and reflect on their health and wellbeing. The system can be personalised for providing access only to a particular user, through face recognition. Other members of the household won’t be able to access or interact with the hidden features of the mirror. The concept for ‘Reflect’ is presented in a video to show how a user might form and develop relationships with the mirror. The video was created to take a critical perspective by showcasing the unintended consequences that the mirror may bring if implemented.

INTUIT team says: Josh’s work brings together health monitoring with smart devices and Internet of Things (IoT). ‘Reflect’ re-imagines the practice of diary keeping for monitoring and reflecting on one’s health and wellbeing. The design explores the affordances of a mirror for gaining insights on self-reported information. The mirror is an interesting object in itself with many symbolic and cultural references. The object is augmented with computer vision and a ‘smart’ interface to support health monitoring in the context of the household. However, the scenario portrayed in the video communicates the weakness of the system and the frictions it may cause. As a result, ‘Reflect’ invites us to critically consider the impact of IoT technologies might have on users’ behaviour, privacy and security.

The user's emotion is identified by the smart mirror.

The smart mirror only provides access to particular users, through face recognition. If not recognised by the system, the person cannot interact with the hidden feature of the mirror.