Amazon Look Is a Camera That Picks Your Outfit The Alexa-powered camera sits on your dresser to take photos and videos of your outfit, help you share them to social media and even gives fashion suggestions.
By Tom Brant
This story originally appeared on PCMag
The experience of shopping for clothes on Amazon just got a bit closer to visiting a bespoke tailor or personal stylist thanks to Wednesday's unveiling of the Amazon Look, the latest gadget powered by the retail giant's Alexa voice assistant.
Amazon describes the $200 Look as a hands-free camera and style assistant. You're supposed to connect it to a small tripod on your dresser or nightstand (or mount it to the wall) so that its depth-sensing camera and built-in LEDs have a clear view of your entire body. Then, thanks to an integrated Alexa, you can ask it to take a photo or a short video of your outfit.
The Look is designed to make whatever threads you chose to wear that day look as good as possible. The LEDs ensure optimal lighting, and a depth-sensing artificial intelligence algorithm will create a depth of field effect that's all but essential to make your photo or clip stand out from all the other selfies on Instagram.
You can browse through the shots you've taken on the Look's companion smartphone app, select the best one and share it to the social media account of your choice. And this being Amazon, the Look app will also put you in the mood to shop thanks to the new Style Check service, which gives you advice on your outfit from machine-learning algorithms and real fashion specialists.
The Look isn't just a fashion guru: like other Alexa-powered devices, it can tap the full power of the thousands of Alexa "skills" to do everything from order a Starbucks latte to check the traffic on your commute, all via voice commands.
While $200 might seem like a lot to pay for a glorified webcam, Amazon has set the price point and is limiting initial orders in order to give the Look an air of exclusivity, at least at first. You can't actually buy a Look. Instead, you have to request an invitation, and Amazon will email you an offer to purchase it if you're selected.
The Look companion app will be available for iOS and Android. It isn't yet available on either app store, however, so it's not clear whether its Style Check and other features will be available to those who don't have the Look device itself.
