One of the things I like most about studying at Stanford is that you are surrounded by brilliant entrepreneurs who have absolutely no problem with explaining their projects in great detail, there are no secrets in Silicon Valley. I honestly think that it is better to talk about what you are doing than to be so protective of your projects. If your idea is good and you work hard on it, nobody is going to copy it just because you explain it to them but is possible that you might find allies who can add to your project. If you keep your idea to yourself is quite possible that your idea will remain simply an idea.
Today I had the pleasure of meeting Charles Hein, the leader of a research team who is working out of Stanford on mirrors with interactive information. And I explained to Charles about the Magical Mirror project that we developed at TMT Factory in 2002. Magical Mirror was a prototype of multimedia bathroom mirror featuring interactive, voice-controlled services, for households with home automation systems. Magical Mirror was developed in conjunction with the Ramon Llull Universtiy, with input from the company ATLAS and financial backing from the Ministry of Science and Technology. The mission of this project was to demonstrate that technology can we humanized and I think that we showed this throw a fun roadshow where people from different towns could try the Magical Mirror prototype.
I worked on the Magical Mirror project 5 years ago and in spite of the fact that the research was very hopeful, this project stayed under wraps in TMT Factory, probably because we were so protective. Maybe my encounter with Charles and my new point of view about business will be a chance to change the Magical Mirror from an idea to a product. For the moment I asked Charles for one of his mirrors for my new home in Palo Alto with the idea of putting the Magical Mirror software in it, we will see if I shower every morning in a better mood.
Here is a funny video of our Magical Mirror prototype.
