Amazon Echo Look is basically a home selfie camera
How do I look? Just ask Amazon's new fashion-selfie-focused Amazon Echo Look.
Amazon quietly unveiled the new voice-activated, hands-free camera on Wednesday that it's pitching as the first "artificially intelligent style assistant."
Like other Echo devices, the Echo Look is voice-activated, powered by the Alexa digital assistant, and it does everything the current Alexa can do, including controlling other smart home devices and answering questions about the weather, news, and your schedule.
This Alexa, though, can also control the device's integrated camera with, "Alexa, take a photo." No more standing in front of the mirror and shooting a selfie or overextending your arm to capture an image of your blouse and skirt or pants and shirt. According to the Amazon's video, you just step back a few feet and tell Echo Look to take a full-length photo.
The 5-megapixel camera sits in the middle of a circular LED flash, and there's depth-sensing to keep the subject in focus and let you blur the background for better fashion selfies. It's pretty low-resolution, but Amazon says they optimized the camera so images can be shared easily and sent quickly to Echo Look's style checker.
The viewfinder for your photos is your smartphone, where you see the live view, take the snapshot or grab a short video (also with voice command) so you can see your fashion choices from all sides. Naturally, you can share all these photos and video.
Amazon is also taking the whole fashion consultant thing a bit further, integrating machine learning and AI into the system with Style Check, so you can get feedback on your look without turning to your partner, spouse or friends.
You just have to try on two different outfits, or choose from previous outfit selections, as long as they're in the Echo Look system, and then let the app tell you which is a better look for you based on the AI, fashion trends and, according to Amazon, "what flatters you."
How the AI can assess that last bit is unclear since beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Other features include a mic mute button, a base that mounts on a flat surface or a wall, a microphone array, and a speaker.
People already take billions of selfies each year, and the online fashion industry is exploding as well. This is a smart play to put Amazon firmly at the center of all of it, especially since Amazon already sells a fair amount of fashion on its site. It's probably only a matter of time before Amazon Echo Look is not only assessing your look, but recommending brand new fashion choices,
At $199.99, the Amazon Echo Look, which is currently available by invitation only, is one of the more expensive Echo devices. The cheapest one is the tiny, $50 Echo Dot.
Topics Alexa Amazon Amazon Echo
Lance Ulanoff was Chief Correspondent and Editor-at-Large of Mashable. Lance acted as a senior member of the editing team, with a focus on defining internal and curated opinion content. He also helped develop staff-wide alternative story-telling skills and implementation of social media tools during live events. Prior to joining Mashable in September 2011 Lance Ulanoff served as Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for the Ziff Davis, Inc. While there, he guided the brand to a 100% digital existence and oversaw content strategy for all of Ziff Davis’ Web sites. His long-running column on PCMag.com earned him a Bronze award from the ASBPE. Winmag.com, HomePC.com and PCMag.com were all been honored under Lance’s guidance.He makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Fox News, the Today Show, Good Morning America, Kelly and Michael, CNBC, CNN and the BBC.He has also offered commentary on National Public Radio and been interviewed by newspapers and radio stations around the country. Lance has been an invited guest speaker at numerous technology conferences including SXSW, Think Mobile, CEA Line Shows, Digital Life, RoboBusiness, RoboNexus, Business Foresight and Digital Media Wire’s Games and Mobile Forum.
