Control board of the smart full-length mirror
Smart mirrors have become a new product category, such as smart mirrors for bathrooms, smart fitness mirrors in the fitness field, fitting mirrors for retail stores, and beauty mirrors. Many related startups are also favored by capital. Neardi can provide a full set of technical solutions such as smart full-body mirror control motherboards, and can customize products for customers on demand based on ARM platforms such as RK3568, RK3399, and RK3326, so as to facilitate and quickly implement related projects, allowing brands and operators to reduce R&D risks and focus on product operations.
The biggest difference between smart mirrors and ordinary mirrors is that they have built-in motherboards, cameras, sensors and other electronic accessories, and operating systems. They can develop related software according to scene requirements, and most smart mirrors have built-in touch screens, which greatly enrich the interactive scenes. There are three main application directions for the products currently available: smart home mirrors, which are generally placed in bathrooms or dressing tables. This type of product is mainly used for interaction and information broadcasting of smart home products, and is considered a network portal. Smart fitness mirrors for the fitness industry, which are mainly used for online fitness training that does not require large equipment such as yoga and dance, are mainly used to create a free online fitness platform to sell courses and related accessories and services. Fitting mirrors and makeup mirrors for the retail industry use virtual images to display the effect of makeup, reduce time costs, and promote transactions.
Among the categories of smart full-body mirrors, fitting mirrors and makeup mirrors are the earliest products to be launched. Fitting mirrors use mixed reality technology to capture the customer's body features through cameras, and output the customer's selected clothing combinations to the display in real time, so that customers can quickly see the effect of the selected clothing on the body, greatly shortening the fitting time, improving sales efficiency, and promoting transactions. The same is true for makeup mirrors, but compared with fitting mirrors, makeup mirrors collect more facial features for processing. Although fitting mirrors and makeup mirrors were launched early, the early processors had poor performance, data processing was not smooth, and realistic demonstration effects could not be presented, making it difficult to provide a good user experience. Therefore, these two products were more responsible for marketing functions in the early days, for customers to experience and attract customer traffic.
With the improvement of processor performance and the rapid popularization of 5G networks, today's processor performance is already very good. With the help of artificial intelligence technology and dedicated NPU processors, image processing can be completed quickly. With the help of 5G communication, complex calculations and rendering work can be handed over to cloud servers. The client displays the returned data in real time to provide an excellent experience. Therefore, most of the fitting mirrors and beauty mirrors on the market are undergoing iterative upgrades.
The development of the fitness industry reflects the economic level of a country to a certain extent. When the economy develops to a certain level, the people pay more attention to health and are more likely to accept professional fitness training. This is why many gyms are opened in economically developed areas or downtown areas, because their target customers are here. However, in order to attract customers, most gyms are equipped with a variety of large equipment, and the venue occupies a large area, which invisibly increases the operating costs. Although more and more people in China are beginning to pay attention to fitness, the popularity of fitness training is far less than that in Europe and the United States, and the operation of professional gyms is very difficult. If the venue is set in the suburbs, it is not convenient for customers to come to exercise. Therefore, many companies engaged in fitness training are exploring online training models, which can not only reduce operating costs, but also save the commuting costs of coaches and students, which is very convenient. The outbreak in 2019 also made people spend more time at home. Online video communication has become a way of communication accepted by the public, and home fitness has become a normal practice, which has played a certain role in promoting online fitness training.
From a technical perspective, the current technical solution can not only meet the real-time video communication between students and coaches, and provide one-to-one or one-to-many fitness guidance, but students can also learn by themselves by following the teaching video. The current new processors all have independent NPUs that are specifically designed to run AI models. With the help of artificial intelligence technology, human body movements can be accurately identified. Compared with standard movements, it is easy to judge the completion of fitness movements. At present, yoga, fat-burning gymnastics, dumbbells, etc. are relatively conventional training programs. These programs pursue the completion of movements and do not require external assistance. They are ideal AI training programs. But the ecology of fitness mirrors is far more than that. With the help of sensor technology, the physical condition of students can be accurately obtained, such as body fat, heartbeat, body temperature, body surface condition, facial expressions and other signs, which is convenient for formulating more scientific training plans and achieving good fitness results. In the era of big data, companies that can accurately obtain these user data can make great achievements in the field of big health.
The role of smart mirror in smart home is more like a smart screen. It relies on the necessity of the family - mirror. Although it is not used frequently, it is a necessity. Such products can complete the linkage well as a part of smart home. Many people call this kind of product a magic mirror. In fact, it is not because of how advanced the technology is, but more because of the huge contrast between smart mirror and traditional mirror, which gives people a magical feeling. The magic mirror is a mirror with a built-in operating system and touch screen, which is the same type of product as the smart screen. It can be connected to the Internet, run various software, and interact with other electronic devices. And as a necessity of life, the mirror can be used as a network entrance to discover the deep value.
Smart full-body mirror products seem to have many subcategories, but the technical platform behind them is similar, a touch screen, an operating system and peripheral sensors. Taking Rockchip's RK3568 as an example, it can support a variety of point screen interfaces, such as HDMI, eDP, LVDS, MIPI, RGB, V-by-one, etc., and supports multi-screen display and multi-screen touch to meet the display needs of smart mirrors. In terms of operating system, RK3568 not only supports Android 11, but also supports Linux systems such as Debian 10, Ubuntu Core, Yocto, etc., and there will be opportunities to support domestic UOS and Hongmeng OS in the future. It is convenient for developers to develop software and realize various functions. RK3568 also has a wealth of expansion interfaces to meet the complex needs of various cameras, array microphones, sensors, wireless communications, etc. ScenSmart can customize products for customers according to actual scenarios, which can meet the usage needs in different scenarios.
Neardi can provide customers with mature and stable technical solutions, reduce trial and error costs, shorten the R&D cycle, and help customers quickly implement smart full-body mirror projects. But this does not mean that smart mirrors are a low-threshold industry. Whether it is smart home, fitness mirror, or beauty mirror, it is an industry market and requires channel sales capabilities. At present, fitting mirrors and beauty mirrors are mainly for brand retailers, and the modeling of various clothes and samples takes a lot of time, and the initial investment is relatively large. The current prices of smart fitness mirrors are relatively high, and it is difficult to acquire customers. Fitness training is a niche market that requires professional coaches to participate in this ecosystem. The introduction and management of coaches are also a big challenge. Most smart home products belong to the soft furnishing market of home decoration. Although they can be shipped quickly in batches by connecting with developers or contractors, the financial pressure is often relatively large. Regardless of the product form, a large amount of user data will eventually be generated. The use of this data is a key issue that needs to be considered.
The smart mirror market is still a blue ocean and is in a period of rapid growth. There are no oligopolies in the industry. Due to the professional limitations of some industries, it is difficult for large Internet manufacturers to quickly enter. Although it is a niche market, it is a rigid demand market. It is suitable for start-ups, but more suitable for the upgrading and transformation of existing companies in the industry.
