Augmented reality is getting ready to help you look your very best; Amazon has patented a mirror that dresses you in virtual clothes.
The patent, first spotted by GeekWire, provides a ‘blended reality’ view of yourself wearing stylish outfits in virtual locations. A camera at the top of the mirror tracks the user’s body and then a screen behind the reflective panel works with projects to illuminate the picture. You could, for example, visit a virtual beach and then have the mirror dress you for the part with virtual t-shirts and shorts that follow you as you walk around. It’s not too unlike a Snapchat filter that paints over your face, for example.
Crucially, though, the patent claims to be using technology more advanced than what’s come before, producing more realistic results by controlling lighting using several projectors.
The concept seems like the logical evolution of Amazon’s Echo Look, an expansion of the company’s home automation system that takes pictures and videos of your outfits to give you advice on what to wear. We could see this streamlining clothes shopping experiences or, using machine learning, helping you out with your existing collection. No doubt Amazon would be able to sneak a few purchasing suggestions into the mix, too. It’ll be some time before we can imagine people welcoming such a product into their homes, though; Echo Look itself is currently only available on an invitation-only basis.
As GeekWire notes, this device could mix well with technology developed by New York-based Body Labs, which Amazon acquired last year. The team uses computer vision to create human avatars with realistic movements that could be used for clothes modeling. That seems like a good fit (pun intended).
