Philips unveils Mirror TV

Is it a television, a PC monitor, or a mirror? Royal Philips Electronics NV hopes you'll ask that question of its new product by next year, and that you'll like the answer: It's all three.

Philips has announced its Mirror TV technology, and plans a small-scale roll-out to hotels late this year. The company hopes to get Mirror TVs into people's homes eventually, too, but that will take longer.

Basic Specs

A Mirror TV is basically a two-way mirror with an LCD screen behind it. When the LCD is activated, you see the display. When it's turned off, you see your reflection. A special lamination developed by Philips makes all of this possible.

The LCDs will be wide-screen, with a 16:9 aspect ratio and a high 1280 by 768 resolution. Philips plans to offer the mirror/monitors in 17-, 23-, and 30-inch sizes.

But the mirrors themselves can be larger, with the image appearing as a window within an otherwise conventional mirror. Initially, at least, Philips will not market standard mirrors and frames, and will provide only special orders to match a hotel's particular decor.

Mirrors with 17-inch screens will sell for less than US$2500, and those with 30-inch screens will probably be priced under $5500, says Gregg Chason, Philips vice president and general manager. But he cautions that it's hard to pin down prices just yet, and he notes that Philips will promote custom mirrors and frames with variable price tags.

Space-Saver

For the expensive hotels that the vendor targets as its first customers, Philips is emphasizing the Mirror TV's good looks. Decor is important, as is space, which makes a wall-mounted display a good choice over a conventional television. Needless to say, a mirror hanging on the wall looks better than an LCD, and is more versatile.

Perhaps you'll be able to use your hotel room's Mirror TV to watch cable as well as to straighten your tie or apply makeup. But what else? The hotel could configure it to handle bill payment and other hotel services, or to allow you to plug your notebook into the mirror for easy-on-the-eyes e-mail retrieval, or to display room-filling presentations.

Eventually, of course, Philips hopes that the Mirror TV will enter less pricey hotels, and after that (though probably not until 2005) people's homes. Among the domestic uses that the company proposes are easy-to-view traffic reports, and cartoons that walk kids through proper care of teeth. When connected with other as-yet-unreleased technologies, a Mirror TV will let you start your day by checking your blood pressure and weight (a feature few may actually want).

That's all in the future. For now, Philips is preparing to do small-scale test runs with hotels in the fourth quarter. "Five samples here, six samples there," Chason says.

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