Mirror, Mirror

Can't afford your own personal gentleman's gentleman to look after your affairs? Then you probably can't afford this "magic mirror" from Themeaddicts Inc either. It's basically a mirror-screen plasma television set on end and hooked up to an array of cameras and sensors so that when the jacquzzi is hot enough or if someone breaks into the pantry, a rather alarming cartoon face pops up to let you know what's going on.

This is one of those ideas where my first reaction is "Cool," followed by "Dear God, this is unspeakably vulgar," and ending with "It's actually a fairly good basic idea, if they'd jettison all the disneyesque animatronics rubbish." Leaving the novelty value well aside, the idea of a digital home with an unobtrusive central readout with a user-friendly interface that blends into the decor while inactive makes a lot of sense. If they dumped the roccoco frame, added some touch-screen and voice-recognition software, replaced the hideous Basil the Butler character with a simplified face or an abstract image that flashed in time with the voice ala Zen from Blakes 7 and added a rotating set of information displays when active ala Hal from 2001: a Space Odyssey, then you'd have something.

But then, I've always been something of a classicist.

Tip o' the hat to Endgadget.