Echo Show version 2?
Have you ever fretted over buying a suit or dress online for a wedding or another flashy event, wondering how it would look on your frame or if it would even fit? That might not be a problem soon now that Amazon has patented a blended-reality mirror that lets you try on clothes virtually while placing you into a virtual location (via GeekWire).
The patent describes the mirror as partially-reflective and partially-transmissive, and uses a mix of displays, cameras, and projectors to create the blended image. The imagined mirror works by scanning the environment to generate a virtual model, and then identifies the face and eyes of the user to determine which objects are to be seen as a reflection. Once this process is completed, the virtual clothes and scene are transmitted through the mirror to create the blended-reality result.
Not all patented ideas turn into products, of course. But Amazon acquired Body Labs last year, an AI-software and computer vision company that once touted its ability to create 3D models of human bodies in motion and then dress them in virtual outfits. You can also draw a line of progression between the blended-reality mirror and Amazon’s Echo Look, a hands-free video camera that takes floor-length photos of you to provide style advice and fashion recommendations.
Amazon has increasingly eyed a place in the fashion industry, ambitiously building up businesses in the sector, including launching its own clothing lines and developing algorithms that design clothing based on Instagram fashion trends. All considered, an Amazon-branded mirror that helps you get dressed isn’t as bizarre as it might have once seemed.
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