Last month, Amazon launched the Buy Now , a hands-free camera that is designed not for security, but for style. And now, that camera has a companion app available on both iOS and Android devices. The complete Echo Look system lets you view live previews from the camera, take a picture, check out various outfits, mark your favorites, compare styles, and more.
Amazon has integrated Style Check, its half machine learning, half human-powered feature that helps you decide on the day’s outfit, into the Echo Look app, and also encourages users to save selfies in the app itself. This way, Amazon can maintain tons of plenty of real data about your personal style choices, and hopefully, make better recommendations for your next online shopping spree.
The Echo Look wraps up several features you would expect from an Alexa addition, including the ability to simply say, “Alexa, take a photo.” But the camera also introduces a number of other features, including getting advice from fashion experts and faking the background blur or a larger-sensor camera.
On the surface, the Echo Look is designed to make Alexa a personal fashion assistant. The full-length camera is designed to show users their outfit from every angle, then record a photo to create a personal “lookbook” of favorite outfits. The camera can also record videos for a better glimpse of an outfit’s view from every angle.
Using machine learning platforms, Style Check compares two photos and suggests the “best” outfit for you. Amazon says the outfit ratings are based on fit, color, style and current trends. With user input and feedback from a group of fashion experts, Amazon says the artificially intelligent feature will continue to improve over time.
Outside the style advice, the Echo Look aims to make the photos look less like they were taken from a compact camera by applying background blur. Amazon says the system uses a depth-sensing camera to blur out the background, and in the sample images on the webpage, the background does appear to blur but doesn’t always get the edges right, leaving the leg of a chair right next to a shoe sharp but blurring out the rest, for example.
The Echo Look appears to have Echo hardware built in, so users can also ask the camera the same thing they ask the previous personal assistant, like getting the day’s weather or news.
The hands-free camera uses an oblong design and a standard tripod socket, with options for setting the camera on a flat surface or mounting it to a wall. Four built-in LEDs also aid in getting the shots from dimly lit rooms.
Amazon’s style assistant, for now, is only available by invitation only. Interested users can request an invite online, with the camera selling for $199.
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Article originally published in April. Updated on 05-23-2017 by Lulu Chang: Added news of the Echo Look companion app debut.
Outdoor security cameras are not always practical if you live in an apartment or rental. Drilling into an exterior wall may be off-limits, while pointing a regular indoor camera through a window can create another problem once reflections start showing up after dark.
Baseus is trying to solve both issues with the new PrimeSentinel W1, a $69.99 security camera designed specifically to monitor the outdoors through glass. It mounts directly to a window without drilling and uses a 4K Starlight sensor with an F1.0 aperture for full-color monitoring during the day and at night.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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