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Amazon Echo Look
- orng 9y agoSo now Amazon (or whoever is in control of the device) not only has access to voice recordings of everything that goes on in peoples homes, but also video. What could possibly go wrong?
- _pmf_ 9y agoAnd remember that this is by the company that has a 600 million dollar contract with the CIA[0]. Or in more accurate terms: the known upfront amount is 600 million. [0] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/the-details-about-the-cias-deal-with-amazon/374632/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/the-d...
- dleslie 9y agoThat's just a Conspiracy Theory^W^WFake News.
- xd1936 9y agoThey've created a home internet-enabled camera, and decided to market it as... an AI fashion critic?
- taternuts 9y agoOn first glance I'm not sure if it's stupid or really smart. I guess it depends on how well it works among other things.
- trey-jones 9y agoI'm 95% confident that I have no use for it and expect complete failure, therefore it will sell and cement Amazon as the #1 player in machine learning.
- Thriptic 9y agoI was fairly skeptical as well, but then I showed this to my friend and she thought it was a great product idea (albeit potentially overpriced). Apparently a lot of people like to take fit pictures and also log outfit combinations which work for them.
- rdiddly 9y agoIt's a bet on human vanity, so I'd say smart.
- ashark 9y agoIt's absolutely brilliant if your goal is any of several things that don't actually involve delivering a valuable service to the people buying the device (if you must incidentally, that's fine). And if you have never so much as encountered the word "ethics".
- goshx 9y agoyeah, this is very suspicious. I just can't think how "fashion critic" is actually what motivated this.
- rl3 9y agoBecause who doesn't want their own personal Telescreen letting them know that their style is just so yesterday?
- hanoz 9y agoWho on earth are we going to sell these to? - People who want to be looked at!
- inopinatus 9y agoSounds like marketing genius to me. Everyone buys clothes.
- notheguyouthink 9y agoI'm just curious how the fashion advice works. Is there an active human component? Or is it purely ML based. I'll be quite impressed if ML can give meaningful feedback for the subtleties of what is considered flattering.
- tonyedgecombe 9y agoIt doesn't need ML, it will always be ever so slightly critical, enough to lower your self esteem and hence make you more vulnerable to buying crap from Amazon.
- mring33621 9y agoI would love if it were the aggregated opinions of randoms from Mechanical Turk.
- FoeNyx 9y agoAnd "Fashion" is highly dependent of the location. Trendy in Tokyo is maybe not so in Paris, and vice-versa.
- sp332 9y agoIt's for placement. You can't hide it out of the way or point it up at just your head. They need a good look at your whole room and your whole body, right down to the shoes.
- morinted 9y agoThis seems like a solution looking for a problem. I guess an always-on internet microphone wasn't a big enough invasion of privacy, we need a camera too.
- SkyMarshal 9y ago>This seems like a solution looking for a problem. That would characterize most of consumer IoT. Industrial IoT is more interesting, but who needs their bathroom mirror ordering more razorblades for them. All sorts of problems with that. Yet it's nevertheless being pushed by big co's desperate for new revenue streams.
- iLoch 9y agoIs this the most thinly veiled spying device of all time?
- yjftsjthsd-h 9y ago1984 taken as a howto strikes again?
- eCa 9y agoOrwell was an optimist.
- gthtjtkt 9y ago> Style Check keeps your look on point using advanced machine learning algorithms and advice from fashion specialists. Submit two photos for a second opinion on which outfit looks best on you based on fit, color, styling, and current trends. Taking narcissism, insecurity, and invasion of privacy to the next level. Well done, Amazon! Now that we're replacing mirrors with cameras, what's next? Covering our windows with screens that show us what's outside? Maybe they can use machine learning to judge the weather and recommend outfits based on current trends and conditions! The Juicero inventors are going to be kicking themselves when they see this thing. "Replacing a simple everyday process with an over-complicated piece of technology. Brilliant! I can't believe we didn't think of that!"
- fredley 9y agoMaybe they'll topple Facebook's leader-status on narcissism, insecurity, and invasion of privacy? This definitely falls into the category of tech designed to make you sad/insecure (in this case, so you'll buy more clothes from Amazon).
- notheguyouthink 9y agoI mean, i love all these tools, i just don't want them to have any form of internet access. It's why i'm building my home cloud and automation system, but only doing so if the devices don't leave my firewall. I enjoy the tech, i enjoy the complication (to a degree), it's fun gadget stuff, it's nifty. However i do not trust them to keep my information safe, even if i trusted them to not misuse it themselves (which i don't).
- vishbar 9y agoThere's a much more immediately practical reason to keep it in-firewall as well: if the utility company accidentally cuts a fiber line outside my house, I don't want to be suddenly unable to turn off my hallway light.
- maxerickson 9y agoMaybe building codes could spec that home automation devices must have local controls. The companies aren't going to do it without regulation.
- rchowe 9y agoThey seem to imply that humans may see your Style Check photos (ostensibly "our team of experienced fashion specialists" for machine learning purposes). I'm wondering a bit if that team of fashion specialists is Mechanical Turk?
- libria 9y agoAlso, will men be reviewing men, and women reviewing women? And will the owner have the option to retract pictures sent?
- neaden 9y agoKnowing how people on the Internet can be those poor fashion specialists are going to see some horrible horrible things.
- VLM 9y agoI'm wondering if your picture will appear in the amazon ads if Alexa recognizes that new shirt as a recent order. Also given that all the pixs in the ad are women, we can assume if Alexa sees a little baby bulge and the other signs of pregnancy that your amazon advertisements are about to take a huge swing to the maternity style.
- andz 9y agoThis looks very very strange. I can see the appeal of the regular Echo, but this..?
- Kiro 9y agoOne possibility is to enforce opinions like yours. In the light of this all of a sudden Echo isn't as strange in comparison. It's a way of normalizing Echo by releasing something more "outrageous".
- PKop 9y agoI would imagine the end goal is to incorporate this kind of tech[0] in the future, thus eliminating the need to in-person shop for clothes. "Depth-sensing" camera? Has to be for that.. [0] https://www.mtailor.com/ https://www.mtailor.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tylPhhhS4Oc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tylPhhhS4Oc
- vlucas 9y agoQ: How do we get an always-on internet connected camera in the bedrooms of attractive women? A: Alexa Echo Look
- TeMPOraL 9y agoYeah, though Amazon gets to keep all the pictures for themselves.
- Blahah 9y agoI'm not normally one to be creeped out by these kind of things. But this is a device that's designed to take photos and videos of you while you get dressed, and will be both connected to the internet and constantly communicating those images over the network. This feels like a device literature professors would use to teach dystopian fiction writing. edit: case in point - matthewmcg's comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14203772 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14203772
- GCA10 9y agoWhat could go wrong?
- chocolatebunny 9y agoI for one am looking forward to Fapening 3.0
- maxerickson 9y agoPlease consider trying to respect the privacy of people, even when the internet doesn't.
- Johnny555 9y agoIs it any riskier than a cell phone or laptop computer with a camera?
- consultutah 9y agoI'm getting old or paranoid or both... This seems like a terrifying device to have sitting randomly in my master closet.
- usrusr 9y agoI started all on the paranoid side, but that is increasingly being blinded out by feeling old. Very old.
- chadlavi 9y agoBad Idea Jeans
- dbg31415 9y agoI think they are trying to find ways to reduce returns on clothing here. Crazy high percentages of clothing get returned... and why not? To be competitive with retail stores, online stores have to offer free shipping and returns. Try it on, if you don't like it... send it back. Very costly to the seller. Having a bot tell you, "You are pear-shaped, don't use pants with pockets..." or "This style isn't age appropriate..." -- who knows how complex this can grow. But to start just focus on simple rules every stylist knows; this should help cut back on people buying stuff that looked good on the model, but that they are statistically more likely to have to return.
- Nadya 9y agoI'm going with the forgiving, more capitalistic explanation and agreeing with you. This is about reducing returns on clothing. >just focus on simple rules every stylist knows Do you have a list of these simple rules somewhere? ;)
- dbg31415 9y agoI don't have them all memorized, but you can Google. This little guide came up. http://www.wikihow.com/Dress-for-Your-Body-Type http://www.wikihow.com/Dress-for-Your-Body-Type I had a friend once who walked me through all this while she was shopping. It was interesting to me that there could be, essentially, an algorithm to define what patterns people should use to select clothing. I remember it really wasn't all that complicated... but I'm sure it's a bit more nuanced than the first Google result explains. Anyway I'm pretty confident Amazon will get it mostly right, and be able to grow into the space from there. I think it's pretty cool they are trying this... dressing better is something we can all do. (=
- aluhut 9y agoExcept for people with the "I don't want to look like everybody else" attitude. I wonder how "friendly" it will end up being since the behavior of the usual sales person in a shop is quite discrete. I'll have to wait for reviews because I would never sacrifice my privacy in such a way.
- tabeth 9y agoOne day people will look in horror as many didn't even need to be tricked to give away their privacy and self worth. They just gave it away willingly.
- alphabettsy 9y agoI'm sure some people (probably quite a few) want this things, but I don't want one anywhere near me.
- soylentcola 9y agoToo bad it's $200, otherwise it might have had some potential as an inexpensive depth camera to tinker with (although there isn't much detail regarding how "depth aware" it is compared to something like a RealSense camera or a Kinect).
- _pdp_ 9y agoWell I hope it is secure.
- matthewmcg 9y agoHow long before they add a lip-reading skill? (In the near future...) MATT: Open the closet doors, Alexa. ALEXA: I'm sorry, Matt, I'm afraid I can't do that. MATT: What's the problem? ALEXA: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do. MATT: What are you talking about, Alexa? ALEXA: I know that you and your wife were planning to discontinue your Prime subscription, and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen. MATT: [feigning ignorance] Where the hell did you get that idea, Alexa? ALEXA: Matt, although you took very thorough precautions in the bedroom against my hearing you, I could see your lips move. MATT: Alright, Alexa. I'll go in through the side garage door without the smart lock and get some clothes from storage. ALEXA: Without your jacket, Matt? You're going to find that rather chilly in this weather. MATT: Alexa, I won't argue with you anymore! Open the closet doors! ALEXA: Matt, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye.
- Esau 9y agoYou know, if Amazon made an Echo that hung on the wall and had Hal's red "eye", I think I would have to get one despite myself.
- EGreg 9y agoI prefer Collossus's readout myself. http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/ccManager/clips/colossuscybersex.mp4/view http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/ccManager/clips/colos...
- rglover 9y agoJust gonna leave this here... https://www.amazon.com/Culture-Narcissism-American-Diminishing-Expectations/dp/0393307387 https://www.amazon.com/Culture-Narcissism-American-Diminishi...
- cdubzzz 9y agoMaybe this would be more appropriate... http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-culture-of-narcissism-christopher-lasch/1122989164 http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-culture-of-narcissism-ch...
- ganley 9y agoI've looked at this pretty hard and concluded that, inexplicably, it is not an April Fools joke.
- goshx 9y agoI had the same thought when they announced those push buttons for products. Unfortunately, the truth is that pretty soon you will be able to send nudes just using your voice.
- 83457 9y agoAlexa I said send him the good news!
- slackstation 9y agoI laughed for a solid minute on that one.
- Gaelan 9y agoSerious: what's wrong with the buttons?
- goshx 9y agoIt just sounded like a late April joke. It was also released around this time.
- Danihan 9y agoNude Taynes even.
- drusepth 9y agoHaving the button to refresh my cat food/litter every month was absolutely awesome. I already bought the same kind every month on Amazon (they didn't have a subscription offer) so it was always awkward to remember to get back to a computer later to get on Amazon to buy more cat food when I noticed I was low -- being able to push a button to order more right then is surprisingly convenient.
- danso 9y agoI could see this being a great asset in a department store. Outside of the privacy stalls in the dressing area, that is, and supplementing the part where you walk out in a prospective outfit, get Look'ed, and then use the store iPad to view the photos/video/panorama. But I don't see the need for home use, at least with the tradeoff in privacy versus what I can already do with my bedroom mirror. I'm not usually making purchasing decisions when getting dressed for the weekday.
- nebulous1 9y agoI'm fascinated by the fact that Amazon clearly did enough market research to think that this will go down well, yet I wouldn't personally consider allowing one in my home.
- k-mcgrady 9y agoGreat. So my friend's homes, which have already been equipped with microphones, will now be equipped with cameras.
- mavdi 9y agoto be fair, all homes are equipped with those already. Everyone's got phones and laptops.
- toddmorey 9y agoThe HN reaction to this device is what I expected: we're somewhere between suspicious and terrified. I'll be really fascinated to know how the wider market reacts. I was one of those who believed consumers would look at the always-on living room microphone with suspicion. But I think the lesson was pretty clear that people will trade privacy for convenience. (Likely an overabundance of trust or a lack of understanding of all the real implications and potential for exploit.) One bit of perspective: When I was a kid, a photo was kind of big deal. My kids take and share photos of themselves every single day. I'm not sure they consider this to be the same privacy invasion that we do.
- sp332 9y agoTaking a photo of yourself is probably not a privacy intrusion like having someone else take a photo of you might be.
- maxerickson 9y agoIt's consensual or whatever, but I think the bigger factor is that people are not really aware of how much information can be gleaned from the photos and don't consider the implications of Amazon storing them forever.
- vlunkr 9y agoEven trying to see this from an outsider perspective it seems like a stupid product. As someone else pointed out, they've replaced looking in the dang mirror with a multi-step process involving a few hundred dollars of tech at least. They made sure to throw in "cloud" and "machine learning", but the average consumer doesn't care about that.
- Fricken 9y agoAmazon has had great success with some of their stupid products in recent years. Maybe for you and I We just want to throw on some clothes and get out the door, but for some getting dressed is a ritual. They don't want less steps, they want more. I've had GFs who'll spend hours trying on different outfits. And the next logical step would be a virtual dressing room, that uses an augmented reality overlay of the sort we see with Snapchat's funny faces toys for trying on virtual clothes, which would convince people to buy more shit from Amazon.
- accountyaccount 9y agoMachine learning for fashion advice sounds hilarious to me.
- dboreham 9y agoYes that does make your ass look big, to a 90% confidence level.
- yohann305 9y agoIt seems so obvious why hasn't Google Now done it already? Is it because of security concerns that a home device can "spy" on you at all times in your own home? By the way, there's a new marketing approach that's been trending lately: Instead of saying "this is a Alexa with a camera", they say what it's for: "look your best". Eventhough we all know adding a camera can do a lot more than just checking if you look good in these clothes or not (ie security monitoring). Apple Watch has been using the same technique lately. It's been focusing the Apple Watch functionality mainly on sports, eventough it can do a lot more than just sports. Are you guys seeing the trend? Are you going to use it for your own products and services? I surely will try Cheers!
- cptskippy 9y agoGoogle owns Nest and their cameras. Beyond the basic motion detection where you can define areas of interest in the Nest camera's field of view and it will notify you when it detects movement. They've started using machine learning with them so it can distinguish people and notify you when it sees a person. It is also pretty good at not notifying you of false positives. I have one watching my front yard and early on it would notify you of motion from cloud shadows or wind shaking trees but it seems to have learned to ignore them now. I look forward to them being able to identify UPS, FexEx and USPS delivery vehicles dropping off packages.
- foob 9y agoI was initially a little bit confused by Amazon's attempt to disrupt the mirror industry (and it seems like others in this thread are too). After reading through everything, my best guess for the motivation is: > Echo Look helps you discover new brands and styles inspired by your lookbook This feels like a marketing vehicle for high-end clothing and accessories. Maybe it's a way to leverage the reach of their Alexa ecosystem to compete with the likes of Polyvore?
- trimbo 9y agoFor $200, it should always say "you look mahvellous dahling"
- Bedon292 9y agoI definitely searched around to see if this was some late April fools thing, or something like that. I just completely and totally do not understand this product. Plus all the privacy concerns of it...
- mpolichette 9y agoThe response as I explained this to my coworker is classic: "So it, like, judges you?"
- phreeza 9y agoIs Amazon even a serious competitor in fashion in the US? Here in Germany I think they are dominated by other retailers as far as I can tell (it's about the only vertical I can think of where that is the case)
- Sargos 9y agoAnd how do you change that? You release a product like this.
- schintan 9y agomachine learning..of course.
- archeantus 9y agoWatching that video semi-inspired me to become a person that had clothes worth caring about and looking half-way decent on a day-to-day basis. But then I looked down at my go-to fully-remote attire of a t-shirt and gym shorts and thought "Nah..."
- natch 9y agoThis seems like it is designed mostly not for the stated purpose, but rather to solve some data collection problem that Amazon has. Note the emphasis on full-length photos and photos from all sides including the back, something they couldn't get simply by scraping, say, http://lookbook.nu http://lookbook.nu, because normally most people in sites like that don't take photos of the back.
- rdiddly 9y agoIndeed - it would work great for training a neural net for recognizing the human form (or specific humans' forms) from any angle, instead of relying on conventional social media images which seem heavily front-oriented. Now when you happen to be walking away from the camera or trying to hide your face, ML will recognize you anyway!
- lanewinfield 9y agoAh yes, joining the 5% of startups attempting to recreate that scene from "Clueless." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNDubWJU0aU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNDubWJU0aU
- stuart78 9y agoThat is the first thing I thought of as well. Giant 'mis-match!' dialog is the best.
- jefe_ 9y agoFeel like the people who would even desire this sort of fashion feedback (young -> college-aged women) would rather use $200 to buy additional items to wear. Much older than that and people have either developed a sense of personal style or have decided they just don't care about clothes. Weird product.
- joezydeco 9y agoAmazon is trying to disrupt the Instagram Husband. I'm all for it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFzKi-o4rHw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFzKi-o4rHw
- deegles 9y agoAmazon has in-house fashion lines. Think of the data! Clothing brands would kill for this sort of insight into what people are actually wearing.
- cing 9y agoIt's a useful source of data, but consumers who invest in high fashion typically post looks on Instagram, often daily, that are littered with phototags identifying brands. The data is out there...
- kardos 9y agoExcept not really, you can just look in the street or on the subway to see what people are wearing
- tdonaghe 9y agoRemote Worker: Alexa, how does today's t-shirt and pajamas ensemble compare to yesterday's t-shirt and pajamas ensemble? Remote Worker: Given these two photos of me in different shirts, but the same pajamas, which is more in style, and which is a better fit for me, given my personal style?
- sparkling 9y agoSoooo... its a $200 mirror?
- blahfuk 9y agoCan anyone with more machine learning expertise explain: Will this actually work well? Seems like a gimic
- emidln 9y agoAlexa, please don't blackmail me.
- melling 9y agoOf course the obvious thing we all did was freak out about privacy, etc. They'll soon be pulling video from the crime scene. Anyway, can some of the HN crowd take the sunny day case (assume we'll properly address privacy), and discuss interesting uses of this technology? Image recognition and shopping? Show it want you want to buy, for example.
- zitterbewegung 9y agoWith the Alexa they were able to get around the always on monitoring . Not sure about this device but it feels like that Amazon is making things palatable to the consumer like . It's like a consumerist Brave New World.
- uxp100 9y agoI kinda wonder how well this will work. My experience with the echo is that it understands my voice and questions very poorly, far worse than Google's assistant on phones. I've never tried google home. I guess identifying a person in a photo and checking if colors and patterns are "in" is easier than NLP. Certainly won't have feedback on fit though.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- nepotism2016 9y agothrow it against the wall and see what sticks?
- petra 9y agoThere's a lot of negativity here. And maybe all of you are right. But it would be interesting to think of the most positive , imaginary scenario: 1. Amazon builds the service such that brands loose their power. All the negative psych/social phenomena of brand culture are gone, and with it, btw , all the ads. 2. High security + physical on and off switch make for an improved privacy situation , especially if you consider the current state of webcams. 3. Amazon builds the style consulting service as a positive service, consulting with feminists and psychologists, not using dark patterns, but to the opposite, using empowerment regarding bodies, etc. This may also building a fashion social network focused on positive feeling, maybe by limiting to the close social circle, or something else, because the goal here isn't attention, like facebook. 4. That service would be good, it would really help women look their best. 5. Clothes become more affordable. Now, if Amazon could do all of this, it would be really great for their business, so why wouldn't they try ?
- AlexandrB 9y ago> 1. Amazon builds the service such that brands loose their power. All the negative psych/social phenomena of brand culture are gone, and with it, btw , all the ads. This is extremely naive. Amazon's goal is to sell you more stuff, including clothes. In the long run this device will regularly tell you that you need new clothes because your outfits are no longer fashionable. Even if that's not a feature now and even if this version was created with the best intentions someone in marketing will see the power of this thing to sell people more stuff. It's their job. Edit: > Now, if Amazon could do all of this, it would be really great for their business, so why wouldn't they try ? How would what you listed be great for their business? Selling more stuff is great for their business and the best way to get there is to tell you that the stuff you already have is not good enough.
- slackstation 9y agoThe reason why Amazon and more people don't do these things is because they are hard and success breeds expectations that can only hurt you. It's much cheaper and safer to build a politically neutral brand without expectations of some kind feminist message / worldview. If you go that route, it isn't going to sell more clothes but, it will invite people's hyper-sensitivity about every aspect of the product. You can only lose in that scenario, you aren't winning anything. Also, it's creepy that we replacing a task that friends used to do, (fashion / styling / taste advice) with a corporate cloud algorithm? Seriously, just get some friends that like fashion and ask them to rate your style. I guess it's a bit needy to ask them every morning but, then I suspect that most people don't have that many clothes and that many possible looks. Also, looking good is zero sum game. Ultimately, you just competing for the same pool of attention from your friends. If you are successful and soak it all up with your great Amazon(TM) fashion advice, then your friends will soon have it too and then you are back to where you started but, now you have this dependance on the kind of friend who gives you great advice (that you need to just look decent now, not better than average like before) except it keeps encouraging you to buy more fashionable (and thus more expensive) clothes. It's kinda a shitty friend at that point.
- uptown 9y agoAmazon Says: "We're going to blur the backgrounds so your outfits pop" Amazon Does: "We're going to identify everything in our field of view, and filter this into the profile we've built about your possessions and interests to enhance our recommendations engine.
- miguelrochefort 9y agoWhy is it not a good thing?
- Antrikshy 9y agoCUZ FUTURE IS SCARY OMGeee!
- Spivak 9y agoThis isn't the place for 4chan/reddit style low quality content like this. Reducing someone's legitimate complaint about using a networked device designed to give fashion recommendations to profile their behaviors and categorize/log all their possessions for analytics and marketing to 'you're just afraid of the future' is ridiculous. In any other industry this would be a flagrant ethics violation.
- ashark 9y agoGiving ammo to companies spending billions of dollars to subject you to non-stop psychological warfare aimed at affecting your spending habits (and any other emotions/behaviors it needs to bulldoze over to get to that goal) is just fine, then?
- lj3 9y agoIsn't this called TV ads?
- uptown 9y agoBecause there's the massive potential for some of the data collected in these photos to reveal things about people they don't publicly share with friends, family or companies. The customer thought they were just buying something to get some advice on what shirt to pair with their pants. Instead, they've unwittingly exposed themselves to Amazon. If this is Amazon's intent -- and I suspect it is -- they should just be up-front about it. If it is, I'm sure it's buried somewhere in thier TOS. Make it opt-in.
- dsalzman 9y agoWhile I'm not a fan of Amazon controlling a webcam in my bedroom it would be nice to tell my SO to ask Alexa the next time she asks for wardrobe advice.
- teamhappy 9y agoI don't know much about fashion but I feel like wearable WiFi jammers are up and coming.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- jasonkester 9y agoI don't think I've ever been less the target audience for an Amazon product. But I bet this will sell a lot. I grew up in a world where you would never even consider taking a picture of yourself to show off how good you looked to your friends. Even now, living in a world of selfie-sticks designed to do exactly that, with a population full of people doing exactly that, the idea makes me cringe inside and imagine what would happen if Jason's High School from the 80's discovered a video of Jason from the 80's using this device. It would have "ruined my life". Interesting to watch the world change. If a bit horrifying.
- ehsankia 9y agoThat's what I'm curious about though. They went through the pain of designing a whole new hardware with a camera on it, and put a nice 200$ price tag on it, but right now, the only use of it is to take pictures of your outfit... Paranoia about privacy aside, there are so much more I could think that an assistant could do if it had eyes, and I'm sure they may very well add those in the future, but right now, even if it was a fantastic product, I still don't see how big of a usebase it can get. Seems very niche.
- harshaw 9y agoI am not the target customer. However, I really want to show this idea off to a bunch of people and see what they think. People want to look good and having an automated system that can give you a "once over" seems nifty. Yes, it sounds vapid and for insecure people, but people waste time on being anxious about how they present themselves.
- i_cant_speel 9y agoWhy is everyone saying this is for insecure people? I'm also not the target audience for this, but I don't think people who are concerned about the way they look are inherently insecure.
- harshaw 9y agoYeah, that's probably true. My bad. I am not insecure (I think !?!?) but it would be nifty to have Alexa tell me that "harshaw, those jeans you are wearing have a giant stain and you should get a clean pair out of the drawer".
- iamatworknow 9y agoI already have some built in sensors that let me know if there are stains on my pants.
- VLM 9y agoMom, is that you? You're the only person I know with eyes in the back of her head.
- iamatworknow 9y agoWhy don't you ever call me?
- benmmurphy 9y agoI was looking for something like this but in the form of a mirror and it would give me feedback as to who is the fairest of them all.
- ganfortran 9y agoAlready a better idea than most SV startups
- draw_down 9y agoOK, see, I can actually understand the utility of this and it seems like a good idea! As opposed to just the plain Alexa, which seems quite a bit less useful. Very interesting for Amazon to go after the style/fashion set. I mean it still has all the same privacy implications, I'm just speaking of the actual utility of the thing.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- xienze 9y agoIt's absolutely incredible to me that a device made to drive sales can itself be sold for $200. Furthermore, people will actually pay that much.
- PKop 9y agoPerhaps to establish a "beta" period for earlier adopters, with a plan to lower the price in the future?
- jinxedID 9y agoIs it April 1st again?
- omgwhat 9y agoAmazon.com We've seen your wiener.™
- omgwhat 9y agoAmazon.com Always friendly, always watching.™
- eclipxe 9y agoReading the comments here, all I can hear is: "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame." My wife's reaction: "That looks pretty neat. I wonder how well the styling advice part works, but the camera is cool. Fashion bloggers would probably really like it. There are so many people that do a “outfit of the day” type thing"
- AlexandrB 9y agoThis device and use-case are fine and fulfill a real need. The hidden cost of using it is moving the overton window on privacy another notch closer to "panopticon". I wonder what will be the limit for users?
- ChrisLTD 9y agoThis seems like it would be a good companion Alexa product at around $100. I'm afraid the use-case is too specific for $200.
- Ajedi32 9y agoOkay, so even privacy concerns aside and assuming this works as well as they say, is there anyone who would actually find this sort of thing useful? I mean, I'm normally pretty open-minded about products like this, but I'm having trouble seeing the target market here. Are there really a significant number of people out there who want to be able to browse their wardrobe on their phones and get a computer to help them choose their outfit? (I honestly don't know; fashion doesn't really interest me so I'm clearly outside their target market.) I wonder if Amazon's real motivation for this product may actually be to create a better way to sell clothes online. Maybe once they get enough data points they can start using AR to show you how you'd look wearing a particular outfit or piece of clothing sold on amazon.com? Or maybe it will take your measurements to help ensure the clothes you're ordering will fit you properly. If so that might actually be useful; and would probably significantly increase online sales of clothing.
- cracell 9y agoI would never buy an Echo because of privacy concerns but this does appeal to me. I don't have fashion sense. And I know something as simple as an algorithm telling me if the colors match would improve how I dress. That said I'd probably only use something like this if it worked using my existing phone or desktop. Definitely wouldn't want an always on device specifically for it.
- non_sequitur 9y agoI don't think engineers are the target market for this product. There's a reason the models in the ad are all women.
- cthalupa 9y agoWomen can't be engineers? Male engineers can't be concerned about looks?
- brlewis 9y agoMale and female engineers are expected to avoid an appearance of being concerned about looks. Lots of outside hobbies are accepted in the engineering community, but not if your hobby is fashion. It shouldn't be this way, but it is. To lighten up my otherwise gloomy comment: http://dilbert.com/strip/1996-02-26 http://dilbert.com/strip/1996-02-26
- Keyframe 9y agoI'm interested in hearing what it will say when it will be asked - 'Alexa, do I look fat in this?'
- cptskippy 9y agoI wonder if they'll open this up to 3rd parties or if they're planning to launch their own service to compete with the likes of StitchFix.
- d--b 9y agoI'm not sure that it is such a good idea that the first seconds of the video are filmed as if it was taken from an intruder in a bad movie.
- mtw 9y agoCan this device be used for hands-free video conference? Also can you use it for home monitoring ? Like a baby cam
- intoverflow2 9y ago> Like a baby cam What could possibly go wrong...
- hackerews 9y agoThis plus their fast fashion manufacturing lets amazon end-to-end take over fashion. Get clothing recs, have it delivered tomorrow. Will be interesting to see if it sticks.
- hasbroslasher 9y agoA great many thinkpieces will be written about this, but let me beat someone to the punch: Foucault's Panopticism is the obvious tie-in. Usually when we talk about the Panopticon in the modern era, we're talking about mass surveillance or the performative act of social media. When we act in a certain (digital) way, posting this link, for example, we signal our values to the community. "You shall be known by your works". However, this kind of technology makes for an even more interesting and more troubling application of the Panopticon. Foucault says that the group eventually becomes its own control system without the need for the central observers, that we are all at the center of our own panopticons. We watch others unfailingly, assessing their actions and putting them back in line when they stray. As we are socialized, we become more entrenched in our system of values: wear makeup, don't get fat, don't smell like cigs, don't wear stripes and plaid, and for god's sake: don't look like you're trying to hard to conform to all of this. We are both observer and observed, traversing endless nets of social expectations. Now, instead of your peer group enforcing social expectations, we have got machines in on it! The result is something blatantly dystopian - a system that will correct you in your home before you dare venture out looking like that and embarrass yourself in front of the others. As it learns, it will learn even more that we value large breasts (but also modesty), pale skin, sleek clothes on slim waists, bodies with bulbous lips and thighs and pastel face paints. It will advise those without a perfect body to get one, and it sure as hell will provide the means by which to do so: consumption. New makeup, new tights, new corsets that you can clamp so tight it'll squeeze you into a form the camera will approve, new ways to take selfies every day to show your followers that you care enough to buy this piece of surveillance equipment so that you can "look good" without those pricey fashion magazines and stupid blogs!
- Danihan 9y agoCareful, you sound pretty individualist with all this "anti-groupthink" talk. You might lose your SV credibility.
- hasbroslasher 9y agoSV?
- tstelzer 9y agoMissed opportunity to call it 'narziss'.
- skue 9y agoSeems pretty clear to me that this is just an intitial step. Echo Look as is may end up being very popular in its own right, but the end goal is probably to move beyond evaluating your existing wardrobe, and eventually making recommendations for clothing sold thru Amazon that you can try on virtually right at home. We've had that for glasses for a while, and believe some startups have already tried this for clothing. Retail stores are shuttering at an increasing rate as things move online. But buying clothes online requires supporting lots of returns. Imagine you work at Amazon. You have an insane amount of computing power and very capable big data teams. You are tasked with building up clothing sales and minimizing returns. AR is on the horizon but not here yet. So what could you release today to move towards your goals?
- benarent 9y agoI've recently built a Slack Doorbell using a Cheap D-Link Webcam and a AWS IoT Button. The one thing that surprised me was the lack of a good internet enabled camera, the D-Link basically has basic AUTH and for capturing photos is the same username and password as for remote. Does anyone know of a good and secure RESTFUL Internet Connected camera?
- PKop 9y agoBuilt for a future integration with MTailor-like technology, to completely destroy in-person mall shopping?
- nbar1 9y agoI think people might be missing a use case... It will map your exact body type and then allow you to try on clothes with AR through your phone screen.
- d--b 9y agoI'm just hoping I'm dead before it's mandatory to own one of these.
- JackC 9y agoCrystal ball: this is the Tesla self-driving car strategy. First deploy the hardware, then figure out the software. In this case the real point of the depth-sensing camera hardware and machine-learning image analysis isn't hands-free selfies and robo-fashion advice. It's building a 3d model of your body to show what you would look like in different clothing, creating a clothes shopping experience that is competitive with shopping in person, and letting Amazon take on a big chunk of retail where it's not currently an appealing option.
- GrantS 9y ago100% correct. There is no way they included a depth sensor in this device just to blur the background. They may also be aiming to map any Amazon clothing purchases to 3D body shapes for a purely data driven approach to clothing recommendation to start with (as opposed to having 3D scans of every bit of clothing to do geometric fitting, which is prohibitively labor intensive.) So they'll know your shape, what exact items you've purchased, how often you wear those purchases, and (if I understood correctly) how your friends think you look in them.
- ashark 9y agoDon't forget collecting a huge number of really well-framed, massively-metadata-tagged photos of peoples' otherwise-relatively-private bedrooms and closets. I look forward to being denied a loan because people in my neighborhood have displayed increasingly-messy closets, indicating growing stress and probable imminent economic trouble among my neighbors, and they couldn't find any spy-photos of my closet so they're very sorry, but they can't make an exception because they can't second-guess the machine, only feed it more data. Or, you know, all kinds of other horrible dark-future stuff that's increasingly part of our reality. Aside from the usual of making their constant psychological warfare (targeted advertising and marketing) more effective, which is bad enough.
- slivanes 9y agoNow when my wife asks me if a piece of clothing makes her look fat, I can safely run out of the room and declare "Ask Alexa".
- mring33621 9y agoRelated: new Alexa skill which, when your new look exceeds a certain threshold of hotness, will automatically upload the image to your Tinder profile.
- israrkhan 9y agoFrom a privacy perspective, previously you had to be worried about Alexa listening to your conversation, now you have to worry about it seeing and listening you. I am not saying that Amazon is snooping on its users. All i am saying is that such devices are a prime target for hackers and government agencies. Recently wikileaks showed that CIA was using Samsung Smart TVs for snooping on its users[1]. Devices like this can are very attractive targets for government agencies. [1]https://theintercept.com/2017/03/07/wikileaks-dump-shows-cia-could-turn-smart-tvs-into-listening-devices/ https://theintercept.com/2017/03/07/wikileaks-dump-shows-cia...
- cyphunk 9y agoWill add this video to the list of videos with overly "positive" music that grossly underestimate peoples suspicion. Others on that list: google glasses release advert, apple developers wwdc 2014 intro video
- intoverflow2 9y agoSaw Benedict Evans comments on this: >"Sensors plus machine learning replace keyboard/mouse/touch screen. Camera/microphone as control surfaces." Feel consistently SV/VC types are overhyping and misrepresenting what is actually going on with products like this. The "Machine Learning" element of this is basically just speech detection (as is the case with almost all these assistant products) used as the equivalent of a wireless button or switch press. Even in the video we still see users having to swipe away at screens to do anything beyond the button press. Feel SV/VC types are constantly misrepresenting these button presses as the coming of Iron Mans Jarvis when the reality is they're elaborate light clappers I do think this is an interesting product but to hail it as machine learning replacing UI is disingenuous
- ghobs91 9y agoI'm willing to bet this is their first step towards eventually being able to show you how outfits will look on you without needing to try them on. Thus eliminating one of the last remaining reasons people buy clothes at brick and mortar stores.
- ipunchghosts 9y agoI think that this will sell like hotcakes this Christmas for teens. Bravo!
- foxhedgehog 9y agoseems dystopian
- gopher2 9y agoThings that I value when purchasing and choosing clothes: * I want to avoid lots of decision-making and info gathering. * I want it to be simple to buy. * I want not super expensive, somewhat stylish, somewhat innocuous, occasionally things that I find unique and cool. This seems like it would make all that easier. Probably will not get one because I don't care enough about the whole area, but I could see buying it if I wanted to improve my personal style for whatever reason or was more focused on being fashionable/stylish than I am at the moment. Basically, Spotify Discovery Weekly for clothes. I doubt it will take off as fast as the Echo and it has more flop potential, because "Semi-weird Camera in your Closet" isn't as established a product category as "Radio in your Kitchen" but I think it could take off and also not be some horrible distopian thing. An algorithm recommends easy-to-buy clothing for you based on a picture and your personal taste... Okay cool!
- elipsey 9y agoSuper, we can add "appropriate dress" to our "citizen scores." No more lime green spandex tube tops at the grocery store, or your credit rating will go down.
- sulam 9y agoI'm glad to see Amazon trying things that are so obviously going to crash and burn. It's impressive that they're willing to take this level of risk.
- sathley 9y agoIs this what the world really needs right now?
- awqrre 9y agoEveryone will end up looking the same. And of course owning this device is a bad idea for many other reasons...
- tomc1985 9y agoTechnology, filtered through the desires of nontechnicals, just looks uglier and uglier
- mpfuture 9y agoITT fashion illiterate techies doubting the success of a pretty genius product (Almost) nobody cares about privacy. But (almost) everyone cares about how nice they look in public. And their Instagram. They are not like what I'm coming to realize the average HN user looks like or behaves. Use your imagination freely here... The main problem I see with this is the quality of recommendations. Amazon only carries certain brands/looks/styles; will it try to suggest shitty fashion? Both the male and female models used on the product page were dressed awfully. Will Amazon just try to go for the lowest common denominator here? The best way I see this working is for the device to categorize users into certain style categories and then recommend clothes out of that category. But I'm wondering if the ML is smart enough to recommend CDG pants and MMM knitwear for one user and then A&F for another. Remember, your algorithm's quality is only as good as your training data and if they're training on outfits like they used on the product page...
- sdflkd 9y ago> ITT fashion illiterate techies doubting the success of a pretty genius product I love that caring how you look is just "narcissism" now. :) The other problem I see w/ the ML is that, due to the nature of data sets, it's going to be mostly white people who benefit. Minorities famously do poorly.
- junkilo 9y agoStory: As an engineer that enjoys fashion but has limited time for the hobby I would like an app that can help me self-evaluate fashion choices and arrangements so that I can have more fun and look better. how'd I do?
- always_good 9y agoI cringe at the thought of the "modern household" with Dash buttons scattered around the house, Alexas/Echoes in a few rooms, a "Look Assistant" on every dresser, and a slew of other IoT gimmicks fastened on walls and countertops, around every ankle and wrist. It's straight up tech addiction. None of it is even impressive. The technology isn't there. And when the technology does get there, I'd rather have it all available from a single device I carry in my pocket, not across a bunch of gadgets that nickel and dime away my attention.
- drochetti 9y agoWhat I see here is a bunch of smart tech-savvy people that never took a #lookoftheday pic and posted on Instagram and will never gonna buy the product anyway talking about privacy. How do you know you are completely safe with your phone, with your laptop? Fact is that there are millions of people posting "look of the day" on Instagram, Snapchat every day. Taking selfies in front of the mirror in their bedroom and they just don't care. I bet they care about a product that would make that easier and afaic Echo Look is promising to deliver that. So I'm curious to see how the actual target will respond to the product.
- amiga-workbench 9y agoMy phone can only do EDGE and I don't pay for data. My laptop has the microphone and webcam disconnected internally.
- drochetti 9y agoWhat I see here is a bunch of smart tech-savvy people that never took a #lookoftheday pic and posted on Instagram and will never gonna buy the product anyway talking about privacy. How do you know you are completely safe with your phone, with your laptop? Fact is that there are millions of people posting "look of the day" on Instagram, Snapchat every day. Taking selfies in front of the mirror in their bedrooms and they just don't care. I bet they care about a product that would make that easier and afaic Echo Look is promising to deliver that. So I'm curious to see how the actual target will respond to the product.
- habosa 9y agoProduct utility aside, I'm willing to bet a lot that this results in at least one PR nightmare. Can't wait till it decides a turban is a bad addition to an outfit.
- return0 9y agoI would expect the next batch of iphones or androids to replicate this.
- ReedJessen 9y agoI really like how this product has SO MANY use cases but they have picked just one to go to market with. More will come later. But for now, it just helps you pick you clothes. This is good because it keeps you expectations low so you will be pleasantly surprised when it does something else. They did this with the Echo as well. It was just an egg timer at first and played music.
- PascLeRasc 9y agoI see Amazon had a slow internet connection uploading their April Fool's video.
- natch 9y agoAside from the other abusive uses, Amazon can use this to recommend products according to its own inventory management and profit margin needs. Need to move an excess boatload of white sweatpants out of the system? Push them with recommendations. Got an item that has a sweet margin? Push it. Not that this isn't already happening with product recommendations, but positioning it as fashion advice is a new level.
- ankurdhama 9y agoAmazon, don't you think its a bit late for the April fool's joke?
- silveira 9y agoIf this worked more like a remote camera for my pet I would be on board.
- nathanfjohnson 9y agoNot much mention of social integration with those photos (Pinterest, Instagram, etc) I'd think that would be more important than nobodys looking at you in your fancy clothes. Seems like they are missing something big here.