Copyright Ian Pearson, BT Futurologist

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Digital Bathroom Mirror

March 2004

Every morning, millions of women crawl out of their beds, their hair ruffled and their faces unwashed and unmade. After many minutes in front of the bathroom mirror they are transformed into a form in which they are prepared to be seen by other people. This everyday experience is about to become much less traumatic and much briefer.

Imagine a digital bathroom mirror, with a built in camera. The mirror itself is just a video display. Normally it shows your reflection like any other mirror, but it can also show you in digitally enhanced forms. Digital mirrors may be used as a recreational tool, since people like to experiment with their appearance, but they might also be useful psychological aids.

For example, someone who is very old and unhappy about seeing themselves with wrinkles, could choose to see a younger form of themselves in the mirror. Since the computer generated image could still mimic the actions of the person in front of it, it could behave as a magic rejuvenating mirror. An old lady need never see herself as she actually is, only as she would like to be. The digital image would still allow her to put on makeup, pluck her eyebrows or comb her hair, just with less trauma. In fact, the computer could easily overlay a 'make-up by numbers' diagram over her face, to help her put the right makeup in the right place.

Videophones are staring to appear in common use, and in the future, some of these will work with virtual, computer generated, environments, in which the images of the people are also computer generated. The digital mirror may be of use to allow people to customise the image they want to transmit in such virtual environments. Users will tweak their image as much as they like until they get an image they want to project. Since some people will only ever see them electronically, they can be accepted on the basis of their chosen projection rather than on reality.

But it will get much more exciting once two other technologies start of emerge. The first is nanotechnology enhanced makeup, where tiny particles can be aligned along an electric field, changing the colour of the makeup just like liquid crystal displays, or using diffraction like the colours on butterfly wings. The second is the means of creating the electric field. A lady could have tiny electronic components printed onto or even into her skin at a clinic, and this electronic 'active skin' underlay could control the appearance of the makeup laid on top of it. None of the electronics would be visible to the naked eye, being typically just a few microns across. Only the skin or makeup would be visible. So a woman with this active skin could simply choose how she wants to look using her digital mirror, then smear the smart makeup all over her face and push a button. The makeup would immediately take on the chosen appearance. She may go further, and select different appearances for the various engagements in the day ahead. Since various pervasive computing systems will tell her makeup where she is, who she is with, and what time it is, her appearance would automatically change as she goes through the day. Even components of her perfume could be selectively vaporised according to the context, using printed active skin heating elements. Depending on how fast the transitions between colours can be made, even video makeup might be possible, and certainly slowly changing patterns. The appearance of the makeup would probably be under local control via the woman's portable computer or PDA, or networked via her mobile phone, potentially under the control of the makeup company. It is amusing to think of the potential to cause mischief by hacking in to the system and altering the appearance of women without their consent, perhaps even writing silly messages on their faces.

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