• Machine intelligence (OCR, machine translation, etc.) acts as first response if no human helper is immediately available.
• Fellow users translate and rate translations.
• Human translations feed back to the machine translation data.

First of the 2 key elements of the system is connectors. They should have the following requirements:

* interchangeable, provides durable and standardized physical (several sizes) and electronic signal connections.
* each contains re-chargeable battery to supply power to attached module.
* provides secure and fool-proof wireless signals among paired modules (wifi, bluetooth, or wireless-USB).  They can pair up by physical connection and press of a button.  When the indicator lights steady, the shared secret key is established.
* stackable battery charging.
* interchangable for easy swap.

Second of the key elements of the system is modules. They can meet the following goals:

* provides different functions
* allows customized designs
* interchangable, provides data duplication and redundancy
* each module might have its own local software or logic to process data before sending out
* every feature of the current gadgets can be an independent module: CPU unit, storage, display, inputs, GPS, camera/camcorder lens, audio I/O, cell phone signal, etc.

Let me describe a scenario. I will start with 3 pieces of modules: a CPU unit, a data storage unit, and a cellphone connection unit. They are physically attached together with the connectors, safely stowed in a zipped pocket. Externally, I have a few separate displays connected wirelessly: 1 touch screen, 1 e-ink display, 1 on my watch, and 1 pico projector. I also have a few wireless input devices, including a simple keyboard, 1 multi-lingual keyboard with specialized logic, and 1 writing pad with stroke recognition. I can choose to physically attach the writing pad with the e-ink display during commute, but actual data goes into the CPU unit, stored in the storage unit, and synchronized to the cloud and a backup unit at home with the cellphone connection unit. When I travel, I can bring a lens unit, bound with a GPS and an image process unit. When I run out of battery, I can stack them together to charge at the same time (including wireless charge), swap, or turn off wireless and combine them physically.

I think the current technology is capable to do this now, think the size of eye-fi SD cards and device batteries. All they need to do is to adjust their design philosophy. Do not try to have every feature on a single device. The key is a connector design with the requirements mentioned above.

The MM hangs on the wall quietly for most of the time. It’s being charged silently by a wireless charger, similar to the one you use to charge your toothbrush. It makes update quietly to the content cache on its solid state drive (SSD) through wifi, receiving data from a network storage device and the web (optional: fall back on a mobile network).

Unknowing all the things going on inside, its master (my mom) walks to the MM and wakes it up: “芝麻开门吧” (open sesame). The hidden webcam scans her face and recognizes the master, instantly fade in a polite servant (one of those Flash movie loops). The servant is pretty smart, figuring out that she understands Chinese only. According to the time of the day (7am), he guessed she probably wants to know the weather, direction, and traffic for the event planned ahead.

He even remembers to praiser her in a flattering tone: “wow, you look very healthy after working on the garden yesterday!” Then put on a stylish hat on her with augmented reality, probably from one of the department stores nearby.

However, she decided to wake me up from my warm bed, so she yelled: “KAIWEN!!!”. The servant immediately zoomed in my smily face, and started dialing my MM. Five seconds later, my sleepy face shows up on the glass. My mom’s order comes in from the other side of the Big Apple: “don’t forget to bring my green tea tiramisu today!”

“But, the only bakery that made it at the Cooper Square has closed.” I can’t believe she don’t remember that.

“I know, but I want to eat it now, you better learn to make it.”

“Yes, your highness.”

My hands touch the mirror, making circles. Kudos to Google, after I did a few Tai Chi strokes, a recipe jumps into view:

http://www.recipezaar.com/Green-Tea-Tiramisu-144906

Such is the life with Magic Mirror.

It can be very simple, just requires the URL of the blog or RSS feed, then generate the PDF file, with table of content, table of photos, index, etc. A paid version can include visual configurations and other fine-tune options. It should allow easy ordering for printed copies.

I would be interested in hearing from people who want to make this real.