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Update: Amazon has discontinued Echo Look, effective July 24, 2020.
How are you looking today? Are you sure you’re looking your best?
And how do you know if you’re looking your best? Do you trust your friends and family to tell you the truth about how you’re actually looking?
If you could look better, would you want to? Or do you even care about how you’re looking?
Amazon Echo Look
Amazon wants to help you look better with its new device, Echo Look. Like the original Echo, Echo Look is a gadget that is ready to obey your voice commands.
But unlike the original Echo, the Look has a camera to help you with your fashion choices.
Echo Look lets you take full-length selfies of yourself wearing your favorite clothes. Using voice commands, you can use Look to take photos and videos of yourself to help you organize your wardrobe, and get fashion advice.
Echo Look can keep a photo record of your clothes, show you how you look in your outfits, and help you choose what to wear, based on what looks best on you.
Like the original Echo, Echo Look has a microphone for voice commands. With Echo Look you can use your voice to snap a photo: “Alexa, take a photo.” Look will then take a full-length photo of you. The background of the image will be blurred so you can focus on the style of what you’re wearing.
Look has four LED lights so it can take photos even in a dark closet.
You can also ask Look to take a video, so you can see every side of your outfit. Say, “Alexa, take a video,” then twirl to capture all angles.
This video shows how Look works:
Look also has features of the original Echo. You can use other Alexa skills on the Look, just as you can on the original Echo.
[note] Check out What Can Alexa Do? Here’s a New Way to Discover Her Skills [/note]
Those who have privacy concerns may be heartened by the knowledge that the camera and microphone can be turned off on the Amazon Look. (Also see, Computerworld How the Amazon Echo Look Improves Privacy.)
The Look App
You can view your outfits in the Look app, available for iPhone/iPad and Android. The app will store images taken on the Look, so you’ll have a photo record of your wardrobe. You can create a personal lookbook to keep track of what you wore and when you wore it.
If you’re looking for shoes, accessories or matching pieces to go with your outfit, the app can make suggestions with, you guessed it, options on Amazon.
Style Check
Want to look your best? Style Check is a feature in the Look app that may help you out. You can compare how you look in two different outfits and Style Check will tell you which one works better for you.
Choose two images of you in different outfits and have Style Check tell you which one looks best, based on fit, color, styling, and current trends.
You can use the app to share photos taken by the Look with your friends on social media, if you want to get their opinions too.
How does Style Check know which outfit looks better?
According to Amazon, Style Check uses both advice from fashion experts and “advanced machine learning algorithms” to choose the better outfit for you.
Can you really trust it to choose to the best outfit?
Well, first, it doesn’t have to worry about hurting your feelings. If you asked Style Check for its opinion, presumably you must want its honest opinion, not false flattery from friends.
Second, it doesn’t criticize. No “that makes you look fat,” or “what were you thinking buying that color?” It just chooses which outfit looks best on you.
Third, if you disagree, you don’t have to wear what it suggests. Wear what you want.
Amazon promises that the app will get smarter and learn from your feedback over time.
Do I have to use Style Check with the Echo Look?
You don’t have to use Style Check to decide between outfits. You could use the Look without ever asking Style Check for its opinion. You could use the Look to keep track of your wardrobe and to get a better view of what you’re wearing. And maybe by seeing two photos of yourself side-by-side you’d be able to pick the obvious choice.
But wouldn’t you be a bit curious which one Style Check preferred?
Availability
Echo Look will be initially be available by invitation only. You can request an invitation at the Amazon Echo Look page.
The Echo Look will cost, $199, which is $20 more than the original Echo. Amazon has not announced when Echo Look invitations will be available.
Your Thoughts
Do you like the idea of tech helping you decide what to wear? Would you pay $20 extra over the original Echo for the camera features on the Echo Look? Would you trust the fashion opinion of Style Check to help you decide on an outfit?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
Oh, my goodness. That’s why Iove gadgets and technology. Alexa is getting better each day and good thing is, Amazon’s innovations are more of consumer-centric. I would love to try Echo Look on me.
Thank You so much, Carolyn. I always find something great on WOT.
Hi Jayant, I’m glad you’re excited about the Amazon Look and The Wonder of Tech! The Look is certainly a surprise. No one was predicting that Amazon would release an Echo that uses a camera to give fashion advice. The predictions were that the next Echo would have a screen to display information. That still may come, but it looks like Look is the next Echo Amazon will sell.
Carolyn, that is really cool. I think I would spend the little extra for it. That feature really seems amazing to me. Does it also show you outfits you are considering buying as well?
Hi Lisa, Yes, Amazon will show you outfits that match your style you can buy on their site. The Look app will have a section for suggestions from Amazon for clothes, shoes and accessories.
Amazon Echo symbolizes a sea-change in humankind’s view of personal freedoms of choice. 70 years ago, on the heels of a cataclysmic economic depression, the U.S. sacrificed multiple thousands of young men and women to protect the privilege freedom to think, read, worship, eat, and yes, dress for ourselves. Today, we actually buy a device, put it in our innermost sanctum of privacy, the closet, and subscribe to an ethereal Big Brother for the “privilege” of giving over some of those freedoms to a version of George Orwell’s fictional “Big Brother,” Amazon Echo.
Whodathunkit!
Hi Bruce, You’re right, there are significant privacy concerns with putting a connected device with a camera in our closets. WikiLeaks revealed that tech has been listening to us without our knowledge. There is no evidence that Amazon is doing this with the Echo, but the Echo Look does raise the possibility that a third party could hack it and turn on the camera without us knowing. But that could be true with other connected cameras, such as on our computers and smartphones.
We do need to think about the potential for giving up our privacy for tech convenience, especially where cameras are involved.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us, Bruce.
Carolyn, thanks for writing this article. People want to look better can use Technology now. Echo is great for creating lookbooks for yourself using your wardrobe. Taking selfies and creating videos and keeping the collection of how you look in your wardrobe can simplify your choices every day reducing the stress. Amazon just created a great niche product with the Echo.
Hi Venu, Yes, having the Echo Look can make it easier to get ready in the morning. No worrying about which outfit looks better or whether you can trust a loved one to give you an honest answer about your fashion choice.
I think if I tried the Look, I would put on two really ugly outfits that were completely mismatched. I would love to hear Alexa say, “You shouldn’t wear either one!”