Introducing Echo Look

Need a little help picking an outfit in the morning? Or perhaps taking the perfect selfie? Amazon has the solution: Echo Look.

The Echo Look is a smart speaker that acts as an intelligent personal assistant. It responds to the name “Alexa.” Just like its predecessors, you can ask Alexa to read the news, play music, and get traffic updates. What’s new about this Echo product is its built-in camera and machine-learning technology.

Camera
Take full-length pictures and 360-degree videos. The 5-megapixel and depth-sensing camera blurs the background to make your outfits "pop."

Lookbook
Build a personal lookbook from the pictures you take. Browse your outfits and share photos with friends. Echo Look can help you discover new brands and trends based on your personal style.

Style Check
Submit two photos of your outfit. Based on fit, color, and styling, Style Check will determine which outfit suits you better.

One of the major criticisms of this product is privacy. Concerns over how much data Amazon will store and how it will be used turns many consumers away. Unless you take pictures in an empty room, the camera will inevitably capture what’s in the background - your things, your furnishings, your decor. The Echo Look has a button you can press to turn the microphone and camera off, but if one of its selling points is its hands-free functionality, why make a button in the first place? Consumers should be able to disable the microphone and camera using a voice command. Also, how many people would remember to turn it off? Some sort of timer would be helpful.

According to Amazon, Echo Look will use its machine-learning technology only to identify outfits, and not one’s surroundings. But without a separate privacy policy for the Echo Look, it is difficult to know for sure what information they can and can’t collect.

At a price of $200, the Echo Look will be available to U.S. Amazon customers by invitation only.

Sources:
Echo Look product page
Wired article