Amazon launches style assistant Echo Look

Who would not like a friend who is available 24 hours to advise on style and fashion issues? Amazon's Echo Look wants to provide users with exactly this experience and has created a digital assistant called Alexa. She takes photos and videos of users to have them view their outfit from all direction and remembers favourite outfits as a personal lookbook. As part of "Style Check", she chooses between two outfits based on current fashion trends. What do you think, is this useful or intrusive?

The verdict depends on how much a user needs a personal style consultant at any time of the day or night and on how paranoid he or she is about personal data being stored in Amazon's own cloud, because this is where the visual and audio data goes for an indefinite amount of time. In any case, Amazon is the first provider of a digital assistant that is now getting a visual glimpse of the everyday life of its users.

Amazon Echo Look - useful or intrusive?

According to Amazon's Echo Look ad, Alexa can even help you calculate your commute, provide a weather forecast or appointment updates or turn off the lights at home. For Echo Look, Amazon added a depth-sensing camera, built-in LED lighting and a computer vision-based background blur with its previously introduced network camera. The acconpanying app lets users record photos and videos with voice commands, which can be viewed, retrieved and shared with friends.

It needs to be seen how discreet Alexa really is and how well protected the privacy of its users - only a few weeks ago Amazon, handed over audio data to US investigators to solve a murder case. However, the more you use Echo Look, the more accurate it becomes based on the stored data that is available. Accordingly, Amazon could use this data to improve purchase recommendations for "Look" users. Thus, do not be surprised if Amazon suddenly offers you a side table or accessories for your lovely white sofa after using Echo Look, courtesy of Alexa's insights into a user's privacy.

Customers the world over have a bit more time to get used to the idea as Amazon Echo Look is currently available in the United States only, where it can be pre-ordered by invitation only for 199 US dollars.

Photo: Amazon