Smart mirror up for prize

News-Register file photo##Joseph Montano shows off his Smart Mirror prototype.

A Linfield College graduate's technology invention, a Smart Mirror that lets users check email or the Internet while grooming, is one of 40 projects to reach the finals of a video pitch competition.

Joseph Montano's device is in the running for a prize of $25,000 in the Kauffman Foundation Competition for 1 Million Cups Entrepreneurs. The winner will be chosen by voters who go to the website https://kauffman.us.launchpad6.com/entries. The deadline is Sept. 29.

Montano's entry is called "JoLoMo Smart Mirror / Portland, OR." To go directly to his video, go to http://kauffman.us.launchpad6.com/contest/2/entry/144.

Montano, who graduated in May, came up with the Smart Mirror idea as an alternative to taking his laptop into the bathroom while he showered and shaved. If he combined technology with a fixture in that room — the wall-mounted mirror -- "it could make technology a very natural part of the day,” he thought.

The computer science graduate is hoping to make the patent-pending Smart Mirror as readily available in the consumer market as tablets and flat-screen TVs.

Montano's project was one of 40 chosen from among 250 submissions in the online contest. "We are receiving more and more positive feedback and are excited for the possibilities of our amazing product," the inventor said.