Amazon Patents a Mirror That Dresses You in Virtual Clothes

Amazon.com is upping its virtual reality game. CNBC reports Amazon has patented a blended-reality mirror that lets you try on clothes virtually while placing you into a virtual location. The imagined mirror works by scanning the environment to generate a virtual model, and then identifies the face and eyes of the user to determine which objects are to be seen as a reflection. Once this process is completed, the virtual clothes and scene are transmitted through the mirror to create the blended reality result. The magic mirror would be a step up from Amazon’s Echo Look camera, which according to GeekWire is currently being marketed on an invitation-only basis as a fashion “style assistant.”

Total Retail's Take: Virtual reality figures to be a top trend in retail in 2018. Amazon's acquisition of New York-based Body Labs and its subsequent launch of the Amazon Echo Look are starting to make more sense with this latest announcement. VR aligns nicely with Amazon's strategy to use technology to improve the customer experience across all channels. Interactive mirror images will soon be a staple within retail stores in the coming years. Brands such as Rebecca Minkoff have already seen success using interactive mirrors in their brick-and-mortar stores, and I expect this technology to become more commonplace.