Amazon Patents a ‘Smart Mirror’ to Help You Try On Virtual Clothes

Amazon has secured a patent a week ago for “blended reality systems and methods.” The Smart Mirror is a great leap from Amazon’s Echo Look camera, which was noted by a CNN article as a part camera, part Alexa, and part fashionista.

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The blended augmented reality systems combine images reflected by a mirror with the images that are transmitted from the screen behind the mirror. It uses a set of highly specialised cameras, projectors, displays, lights, and mirrors to create a realistic and moving image as soon as you look in the mirror.

“When the user views the mirror, the user sees a reflection from the mirror of illuminated objects in the scene and the transmitted images from the display device through the mirror, the transmitted images being perceived as part of the reflected scene,” Tech Inventor.

Amazon takeover Body Labs

According to Geekwire, Amazon’s takeover of Body Labs last October may seem like a great fit for the company’s most recent patent.

Body Labs software is designed to create humanlike 3D avatars that are designed for gaming and even clothes modelling. The acquisition is estimated to be between $50M to $70M.

Acquiring such technology can give Amazon’s private fashion brands an advantage over its competitors, and may even improve the chances of returns from clothing items that don’t match the shoppers’ size or taste.

Amazon currently offers its Amazon Prime members free returns on their Amazon Wardrobe. It’s the company’s try-before-you-by clothes service that was recently launched in 2017. According to TechCrunch, this will certainly be much cheaper for Amazon to operate if they’ll have few returned items to process.

Amazon has yet to release any statements about the most recent patent.

Of course with something along these lines, the biggest question of adoptability will depend entirely on the cost of the hardware.

Do you think the smart mirror will have a place in the bedroom? Let us know in the comments below.