Amazon patent describes mirror for trying on virtual clothes
It could lead to another fashion-focused Amazon product.
Amazon's next move in the fashion world could be a mirror that shows how outfits will look on you without you having to actually put them on. GeekWire reports that the company has been granted a patent describing just that sort of technology. Using mirrors, screens, displays, projectors and cameras, the system is able to combine a person's likeness with virtual images and present a blended-reality reflection that shows them in a variety of virtual background settings and wearing virtual outfits.
Though Amazon has been met with some resistance by the established fashion world, the company has charged forward, delivering quite a few fashion-focused products in recent years. On the retail side, Amazon has launched its own fashion label and its own Stitch Fix-like at-home clothing trial service. On the technology side, Amazon has developed an app that can tell you which of your outfits is more stylish and algorithms that can spot trends and design stylish clothing based on them. And of course there's the Echo Look, the voice-controlled camera that can take photos or videos of your outfits and give you advice on what to wear. The technology described in this new patent seems like a logical follow-up to the Echo Look and the strategy makes even more sense considering Amazon's acquisition of 3D body model startup Body Labs last October.
A patent doesn't guarantee a product and there's no word on if Amazon plans to develop the technology into one. But for a company that wants to break more fashion ground and one whose retail arm will almost definitely benefit from letting people try on virtual outfits, a blended-reality mirror such as this one seems like a smart move.
