Gone are the days of boring bathroom mirrors that only reflect what's in front of them. What you really need is a bathroom mirror that gives stock quotes, displays the local weather, and tells you the temperature of the water you are about to use to wash your face. Seraku Corporation is now in the process of filling that burning need and has gotten a bunch of press attention by doing so. A cynic might wonder why people who absolutely, positively must have Internet access while they shave or perform other bathroom mirror duties don't just make a wall-mounted holder for their tablets next to their pre-Internet bathroom mirrors, but that would destroy the fun of having the display built directly into the mirror, along with sensors that detect hand gestures so you can control your mirror (no doubt by asking, "Who is the fairest of them all?") without touching it with your greasy fingers. Note that this is technically not a smart mirror but a smart washbasin with a mirror attached to it. Either way, it's not available for retail sale quite yet.

Tim: Seraku, could you explain the product we’re standing in front of? This is a mirror, but it’s an Android-powered mirror. What does that mean?

Seraku: It’s a mirror on which you can display information. So for example, in the morning, when you are cleaning your teeth, you can check the news or the weather. That’s the benefit of the product.

Tim: And what is the interface like? Could you show us how we actually interact with the mirror?

Seraku: The mirror has four sensors on it, which are located next to these blue LED lights. And that’s how you operate the mirror. So to display something, you hover over the sensors with the palm of your hand. And the mirror then displays one of these four items: the news, the weather, the body weight or the camera.

Tim: What sort of target market would buy such a thing?

Seraku: For example, hotels and high-class apartment blocks and so forth.

Tim: Now it’s running Android internal, is that correct?

Seraku: Yes, it runs on Android.

Tim: What version of Android?

Seraku: Gingerbread.

Tim: Gingerbread, okay. The display is what ____2:18; how sharp is the display?

Seraku: High vision. So that’s full HD.

Tim: Full HD, okay. Alright and what does it cost? Is it something that an ordinary household can afford?

Seraku: At the moment, it’s just a prototype and it’s not for commercialization as a product for sale at this time.

Tim: Should we expect to see one in the future?

Seraku: We are a software developer. So we are working with various manufacturers and at some point, we’d to be able to release it on the market.

Tim: This is one of the more unusual places I’ve ever seen Android deployed or any software for that matter. Are there other ideas that you can talk about that are similar in this sort of unusual use?

Seraku: We’ve made a device for cultivating vegetables that runs on Android too.

Tim: And where are you based? You’re a Japanese company?

Seraku: We’re based in Shinjuku, in Tokyo.

Tim: How big is the team that came up with this product here?

Seraku: It’s a three-man team.

Tim: And one further thing, Android as a platform, is something you can run your software on, can you install apps on this mirror? Can you put on your own custom apps or standard Android apps?

Seraku: Yes, of course, that’s possible.

Tim: What’s an example of something that might work well on a mirror display like this when it comes to software, that can be used with the software?

Seraku: For example, you could add a beauty function, in which you would have a sensor that detects the condition of your skin so that you could check the condition of your skin on a daily basis.