The Echo Look is an Artificial Intelligence device, AI, that can help you do many things in your life. It has almost all of the current features that are available in the Amazon Echo but it also has a 5 MP digital camera that you can control using your voice.
Rather than holding your smart phone for taking selfies, you can ask the Echo Look to take a full length photo of yourself and take photos from many angles while you pose. You can capture and store the photos of all of your outfits in the Amazon Cloud so you can compare them and have the Echo Look tell you which outfit looks the best on you using style check. Style check is an AI software that uses input from fashion specialist to judge how your different outfits compare to today’s most popular styles.
You can also use the photos to send to your favorite social network and have a full length photos rather than just a close up selfie. The camera can take high quality photos and videos. The camera has its own built in lighting and a depth sensing camera. The photos add in a digital blurring called Brokeh effect. It means that the subject of the photo, you, stands out and the background is blurred as not to distract from your crystal clear photo. This shallow depth of field makes a perfect portrait photo of professional quality.
You are the “star model” while using this camera and you can take as many poses as you wish using the Echo Look. We found the photos to be of good quality and the blurring of the background works very well. I have not posted any photos or videos with this review as Amazon has done a good job supporting this product with their own videos. You should take the time to watch them. My attached video goes over the product and what I liked and I didn’t like.
We already use three Amazon Echoes in our home, one on each floor, and we like the features that Alexa can do for us. The Echo Look can do these same features that we use daily:
• Set daily alarms like get up times or time to take your medicine, or pick up your child at school.
• Set one time occurring alarms like time to leave for movies.
• Set timers for deadlines like cooking alerts or to get the clothes out of the dryer.
• Find a local restaurant.
• Get the time of the day or the date.
• Check the scores of the NFL games.
• Check the weekly game schedule of your favorite team.
• Play your favorite music style, my wife likes 70’s rock.
• Find your local weather or ask if it will rain today.
• Turn lights off and on in your home.
• Control various items in your home like sprinklers, appliances, lights, etc…
• Tell you the latest news.
• Read your Kindle books to you and she does quite well doing this. Not only can she play your audio books but she can also read your digital Kindle books using text to speech technology. This is one of my favorite features when my eyes get tired from reading.
• Check the traffic.
• Check your calendar.
• Look up recipes for food or mixed drinks.
• Tell you a joke.
• Help to do your Amazon shopping.
• The opportunities are endless….
Amazon Echo Look can do all of this and more. It is a virtual digital personal assistant. You can also view the photos using the Echo View app that is available for your Apple IOS 9 or higher or Android phone or tablet using Lollipop or above operating systems.
Alexa responds to voice commands to take photos or 6 seconds of a video. Alexia will continue to learn things as you use her. She will even continuously learn from the fashion specialist to help you select the best outfits to wear.
The Look has a 1.6 watt speaker and a microphone array to listen to your verbal commands. There is a microphone array and camera off button so you can be assured of your privacy. Four LEDs are used to provide lighting for photos and they are bright. The camera is 5 MP with depth-sensing technology. The unit has an Intel Atom CPU. Please see my attached video.
Your photos and videos are stored in the cloud and Amazon provides 3 years of free unlimited cloud storage. The Echo Look also has a 1 year warranty.
What’s in the box?
• The Echo Look which is smaller than I expected. It is about 5 ¼ inches tall. It weighs in at 5.4 ounces. It has two camera thread bosses in the unit and one is on the bottom and the other is located on the back. That allows for easy wall mounting or simply standing the unit up on a shelf. You can adjust the tilt angle using the mounting base. On the side is a microphone and camera off and on button. In the back is a speaker output and the plug for the power input. On the top is the four microphone array. On the front is the camera and the 4 lighting LEDS. For great photos, make sure the camera lens is free of dust and smudges.
• Mounting base that has a tilt-able camera thread stud. It also has a rubber ring to prevent slipping.
• Power adapter rated at 100 to 240 VAC and 50/60 Hertz the output is 15VDC at 1.4 Amps and it is UL listed. The power cable is almost 8 feet long from the AC wall plug to the tip of the power plug for the Amazon Echo Look.
• Mounting wall kit consisting of the wall plate, 2 screws and 2 anchors
• Quick start guide
• It is important to note that the base of the Echo Look has a standard camera sized tripod socket. Normally you set the Look close to the edges of a table or counter so as your photo does not include the table top in the photo. You need to stand about 5 feet away and center yourself and say, “Alexa take a photo.” You can just as easily take a short 6 second video. You want the lens about shoulder height. You can tilt the Look as needed but make sure that it is stable to prevent it from falling.
When setting up the unit it wants to connect to the same WIFI as the smart device that you are using the Echo Look app on. First install the downloadable apps onto. Your smart phone or tablet, plug in the Amazon Look device and turn on the app. All you have to do is follow the instructions. Since you are using the same WIFI as your smart device the Look already knows the WIFI password because of that. That makes it simple, fast and easy to set up.
To have the Echo Look read one of your Kindle books you will have to use the Amazon Alexa App and you will find that the Echo Look device is listed as an acceptable device for setup in that app. Just follow the steps to read your Kindle book just like you would using your Amazon Echo. If you have any questions just post a comment.
Cons:
1. No manual volume control, only voice controlled.
2. The unit has a small speaker and the audio quality is OK for its size but it is not great nor is it nearly as good as the standard Amazon Echo speaker system.
3. I like the small size and it is nice to set in the edge of a shelf or chest of drawers. By having such a small size the volume level and the timber of the audio is not as good as the original Echo.
4. The unit has a single button to disable the camera and the microphone. There should have been two buttons. If you press the button, the microphone is turned off and now you cannot use Alexa for any of the features like play music that need a voice command. Having two buttons would have allowed you to turn off the camera but leave the microphone on.
5. If you press the button to turn off the mic and the camera, a red light comes on dimly around the camera and a small bright red LED comes on to indicate that the camera and the mic mute button are off. Having two LEDS on the front is not good in my opinion. If you turn the Echo Look camera/mic off then you will see these two lights in your dark bedroom at night. I find these LED lights to bother me when I’m trying to go to sleep as they light up the room in some manner. Since we normally dress in our bedroom this would be the most common place for us to located the Echo Look.
Overall this is a nice product and the next generation of Amazon intelligent devices. It is part of the move to higher technology and I rated it at 4 stars. I think it will be a hit for the younger generation that are trying to be stylish every day in the way they dress for school, work or just for a night out. Anyone that works in a professional office would also find the camera useful to help them select the right outfits to wear to work.
If you have any question please write me a comment. I also hope the attached video was helpful in some way to help you make a decision on the product.