Online shopping has grown tremendously over last few years. People opt to order stuff online rather than going to shops to select. The main limitation in ordering a dress online is that we cannot try it while purchasing and many times the size doesn’t fit or the clothing material doesn’t suit us. This has limited customers from purchasing expensive clothes from online website.
Amazon, a leading e-commerce website decided to change this scenario by surprising everyone. They got a patent on the blended-mirror United States Patent and Trademark Office which will let you ‘try’ the dress as you see it, virtually.
This blended-reality uses a combination of cameras, mirrors, projectors and lights on moving image and enrich it in real-time. The mirror is described as partially reflective and partially transmissive.
In 2015, Amazon launched a similar device named Amazon Echo which uses Artificial Intelligence to help decide which outfit to wear. The voice-controlled camera takes pictures of people using voice commands and connects it with an app called – “The Echo Look” which actually recommends which outfit suits us the best. It was priced at $199.99 which can be ordered by requesting an invite from the website.
Amazon also acquired an AI Software and vision company Body Labs last year which was working in this field. The company succeeded in creating 3D models of human bodies in motion earlier. In India, Flipkart – a leading e-commerce store is also working on something similar to Amazon Echo.
Coming back to the latest innovation in this field, U.S Patent Office granted Amazon patent number 9,858,729 for “Blended Reality System”. It is the Amazon’s enhanced version of Echo. The mirror works by first creating a virtual model of the environment by scanning it. It further identifies user’s eyes and ears in order to reflect the image back. After that, virtual clothes are blended with the image. As a result, the users are able to see their real-image with the clothes on. This will greatly help them in choosing the dress which actually fits them and they look good on it!
Amazon has increasingly eyed in the fashion industry by launching its own clothing lines and developing many such algorithms which make designs based on Instagram fashion trends. Thus, this mirror may help Amazon make a great leap in the fashion industry in competition with its other competitors.
Though Amazon hasn’t made it clear if they will make it a consumer product but it surely seems a fascinating idea!
