How Amazon Could Drive Blended Reality Into The Living Room

An anonymous reader writes: Here's an interesting story on TechCrunch joining the dots on Amazon's interest in computer vision and its connected speaker-plus-virtual assistant in-home device, the Amazon Echo. The author speculates that if Amazon adds a camera to the Echo the device could be used for augmented reality-powered virtual try-ons of products such as clothes, streaming the results to the user's phone or TV. From the article: "The product development process for Microsoft's Kinect sensor took around four to five years from conception to shipping a consumer product. The computer vision field has clearly gained from a lot of research since then, and Woodford reckons Amazon could ship an Echo sensor in an even shorter timeframe — say, in the next two years — provided the business was entirely behind the idea and doing everything it could to get such a product to market."

As predicted by John Brunner

[david.emery]

How soon before "Mr & Mrs Everywhere" show up on our streaming video? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

See also http://www.themillions.com/201... [themillions.com]

(Apologies if this post shows up twice.)

I don't know...

[TWX]

...if they can collect enough physical information on the subject to make a virtual dressing-room possible without crossing the line into an unacceptable amount of information being collected on the subject. After all, people were very upset by the data collected by the TSA using the Rapiscan machines that essentially saw through clothes to the skin layer, and in order to make a virtual-try-on actually provide meaningful feedback beyond just hanging a picture of clothes in front of a picture of a subject i

Re:

[DedTV]

People didn't like the TSA screenings because they forced upon them by an agency whose employees could plainly be seen to be no more discreet or professional than a typical fast food employee and all for no obvious benefit to themselves.
But, if the scanners were being offered voluntarily to improve the chances that someone's tux, wedding dress or jeans would fit like a custom tailored article of clothing at off-the-rack prices under the presumption that an automated system would be evaluating the results r

nothing can go wrong

[Tablizer]

"Look ma, I'm wearing Spam!"

just add a camera? bullshit.

[Gravis Zero]

technical issues with 3d aside, to get any meaningful information about it fitting, you first have to have actually have meaningful information about the product! this means that you would need a full 3d model of each article of clothing for each size from every seller. furthermore, you need information about the material it's made of and most importantly, how it reacts to being washed which means information about how the clothing was constructed. with all that information, you might as well be the one making the clothing.

stores aren't going by the wayside just yet.

Re:

[peragrin]

I find what I want in a store find the size. And even purchase it there. Then I go to Amazon buy the exact same product in various colors from the manufacturer that the store won't stock.

That is why Amazon is kicking ass. Stocking every color option in the sizes required. Most of the time.

Re:

[sonamchauhan]

The store may not, but the parent company probably *has* it in stock - in a warehouse, at other stores, or somewhere in its supply chain. It just doesn't have an economical way to elicit your requirements and expose this info to you ... yet.

No, Just no.

[Frosty Piss]

Really, no.

Watch the original THX1138.

I see it coming....

[drolli]

When trying on this underwear virtually other customers looked like this....

We know nothing will come of it ...

[ubrgeek]

> Likewise there's Amazon's thus far ill-fated foray into smartphones ... The device also has a button-triggered barcode- and object-scanning feature, called Firefly

It was actually quite popular. The problem was they canceled manufacturing too soon.

Bad idea.

[Anonymous Coward]

How Amazon Could Drive Blended Reality Into The Living Room

I know these are early days for Amazon's self-driving car, but they should probably work on not driving into people's living rooms with a giant reality blender. That's just a lawsuit waiting to happen, supposing there are any survivors...

Why stop....

[sonamchauhan]

Why stop there... add a projector on a movable arm.

Just what we need...

[Orleron]

....another walled garden set-top box derivative that won't interact with anything else except hardware from the same OEM. Pass.