Amazon, the purveyor of more items than you could possibly count, is now doubling down on their involvement in your wardrobe choices. The company previously made waves with their line of Echo digital assistants. The devices were designed with a focus on home areas, such as the kitchen and living room. The new Echo Look is designed to be used in bedrooms or walk-in closets.
The Echo Look resembles a small speaker. It comes equipped with a personal style assistant that works using a hands-free camera to implement the device's Style Check feature. You simply take pictures of yourself wearing two different outfits or two separate looks. The Echo Look then uses its installed machine learning algorithms and advice from style experts to determine which option looks better on you from every angle. The Look also allows you to easily share pictures of your outfits and receive fashion recommendations to help you decide what to wear. You can also use your pictures to create a lookbook of your best styles. The Echo Look will then use those pictures to help you discover styles and brands that suit you.
The whole process is incredibly easy because the Echo Look uses Amazon's Alexa digital assistant technology. Simply give the command to take a picture or video, and Alexa will take care of it. There is also a built-in depth sensing camera that blur's the background of your photos for you. This helps to give your pictures a more professional look while also obscuring anything in the background of your photos that you don't want others to see. Alexa can also perform other basic assistant tasks for you, just like Amazon's other Echo devices. This includes controlling your home's smart devices, playing music, and giving you weather updates. It can also read the day's news to you, read audiobooks, give you traffic updates, and set alarms. New features and skills continue to be added to the device, making it an excellent assistance device.
The Echo Look is currently only available by invitation, but you can request an invitation to get your own on the Amazon website. The device costs $199.99, which is slightly higher than the original Echo at $179.99, and a good bit higher than Amazon's other Echo devices. By comparison the portable Tap by Amazon is only $129.99, while the Echo Dot only costs $49.99. The marginally higher price isn't really the main concern of consumers. The issue is having a camera enabled device in their bedrooms and the privacy concerns that come along with owning this type of device. Only time will tell if the Echo Look and its takeover of the walk-in closets of consumers is a hindrance or an advantage to Amazon's growing empire.