Amazon just took the wraps off its latest device in the Echo lineup: The Look. It is a logical progression for Amazon’s assistant Alexa. The Echo was home to Alexa in speaker form. Now it is in the form of a camera.
The primary driver for the Look is as a fashion device. The Look accepts all of the typical voice commands you could throw at Alexa, with the addition of two more: The ability to take a photograph and a video of you spinning around. Even the introduction of the device uses a catch phrase that focuses on fashion. The video itself only features one male model.
At this point, the Echo is mostly in Kitchens, living rooms, and garages. The bedroom was notably absent from that list. Now, with the Look, consumers have a good reason to include an Echo device in the bedroom.
The app functions as a catalog of sorts with a history of your previous outfits. It even takes the guess work out of choosing with machine learning, which compares two outfits of your choice and suggests which one looks better.
The biggest issue for the Look is privacy. It was bad enough when there was a microphone listening to everything you say all the time. Now, there is a camera that can take pictures and video. Also, it is in the bedroom. There is also the fact that Amazon will have a record of every picture and video you ever take, along with the right to process those images for its data mining purposes.