Summer Reading from the Edge

Edge.org

Been a while since I have read things from 'The Edge'. Followed for years.  Here that have provided 10+ articles from their archive.  Starting notable with one about 'mirror neurons' and limitation earning.

Summer Reading from the Edge Archive

To arrive at the edge of the world's knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together, and have them ask each other the questions they are asking themselves.

MIRROR NEURONS AND IMITATION LEARNING AS THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD IN HUMAN EVOLUTION

By V.S. Ramachandran

The discovery of mirror neurons in the frontal lobes of monkeys, and their potential relevance to human brain evolution—which I speculate on in this essay—is the single most important "unreported" (or at least, unpublicized) story of the decade. I predict that mirror neurons will do for psychology what DNA did for biology: they will provide a unifying framework and help explain a host of mental abilities that have hitherto remained mysterious and inaccessible to experiments.   ..... 

(Much More below at the link) 

Assistant Enabled Mirrors

More on magic mirrors, with their own embedded assistants now.   So is a mirror an element of the IoT?

Verdera, an Alexa-enabled mirror from Kohler, makes your whole bathroom smart  By Jenny McGrath

Some people may view their bathrooms as a fortress of solitude or sanctuary for soaking in a bubble bath, but that doesn’t mean Amazon doesn’t want to be there, only a whisper away. One of the latest products to include the company’s smart assistant, Alexa, is from Kohler, which added voice capability to its new Verdera mirror, just in time for the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show. .... " 

More on VR Magic Mirror Idea

An old idea, but the technology has been creeping up on doing it well. We demonstrated the concept for years in innovation center venues.

In Fastcompany:     Amazon patents a mirror that lets you try on clothes, virtually. Can this be successfully be linked to their Amazon Look assistant to give useful, visual advice.    Have seen relatively little about that play recently.

Smart Mirrors

Short piece on the conceptual advances of the 'Smart Mirror'.  Was also a discussion point in our innovation centers.  Could they inform you,  inspire you?

Siri Siri on the wall, is this smart mirror society’s downfall?
An iHome for the modern Snow White     by Thuy Ong  @ThuyOng

Someday mirrors will be smart enough to lie to us, assuring us we’re the fairest of them all. Until then, there’s this thing from iHome. .... " 

Amazon Echo Look Fashion Assistant

A kind of 'magic mirror' play.  We experimented with, primarily in cosmetics.  Can that be far away?   Following.   Currently available only by invitation.  In Engadget: 

Amazon Echo Look is a voice-controlled camera for fashion tips
You can show off your wardrobe without taking mirror selfies.
 by Jon Fingas, @jonfingas

Amazon's Echo smart speakers just went in an unusual (but potentially very helpful) new direction. Meet Echo Look, an Alexa-powered camera designed around taking your own fashion photos and videos. If you want to show off your daily wardrobe, you just have to ask the Look to take a snapshot -- you don't have to take a selfie in front of a mirror to get a full-length picture. And since it includes a depth-sensing camera, it can blur the background to make shots pop. The real party tricks come when you're not sure about your outfit, however. ... "

(Update) More detail on Echo Look via Amazon.
(Update)  More detail and invite request.  Looking like much more than Beta.

(Update)  The earliest news did not mention this, but apparently there are humans in the analysis loop for this tool.  Who they are is unclear.  This is a first for Amazon assistant capabilities.  Changes my perspective of the application.  Is it all throughout the interaction? Or just checking?  Or an interaction between experts and AI?

AI Driven Clothes Shopping

I think I have seen at least three recommender-engine driven apparel selection systems pitched to me, none have survived.  This is a tough sell.  Touch and 3D would help.  Another mirror like idea utilizing machine vision.   Will AI help this?  I do hope so, the fashion industry could also use the data involved, have seen that from students in my classes.  In Fastcompany, with considerable detail:

The Robots Are Coming For Your Wardrobe

The husband and wife duo behind Chennai-born AI startup Mad Street Den are determined to change the way you shop for clothes.    By Jackie Snow.

Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing just about every industry, with billions being poured into algorithms for everything from self-driving cars to detecting cancer to chatbots. Not so much fashion.

Mad Street Den, a three-year-old artificial intelligence startup founded by a husband and wife team in Chennai, India, is boldly going where few startups have gone before. The couple’s complementary career paths have helped. CEO Ashwini Asokan was previously with Intel Labs working on product design; her husband and CTO, Anand Chandrasekaran, is a neuroscientist who switched over to AI when he realized the technology wasn’t quite there yet to build silicon brains. ... " 

New Kinds of Assistant Magic Mirrors

We examined the Mirror idea under many conditions.  For cosmetics, eye-ware, clothing.  At home and in the store.  The somewhat new idea then is having trained associates guide its use.  A Virtual assistant.  Does not save the cost of expensively trained labor problem.  Saw a similar thing being done in Asia, where having live demonstration people in the aisle is already common.   But will robotics ultimately take that function? See the Lowes' bot example.

Having a system that can really operate well at home has different challenges,  to make it work and be engaging.   The phone is the natural channel.  We tried permanently mounted mirrors.  Has challenges similar to developing sales chatbots, but with image recognition as a sensory input.   I see this has a limited potential for high end products.   But many will still want to see such products live. Could drive some to stores for a demo.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, will you leave me any shoppers at all?

This magic mirror could be a great sales tool. More likely, though, it will just siphon sales to an online rival.   By Evan Schuman, star Influencer, Contributing Columnist, Computerworld  ... 

The interplay between store associates and in-store technology has always been a delicate balancing act. When the tech helps the associate be an all-knowing partner to the shopper, it's a great thing. But when the tech is deployed so that the associate seems to just get in the way, it can ultimately undermine the in-store experience. Enter the HiMirror.

Retailers have toyed with magic mirrors before — it seems to be the retail tech idea that never dies, despite the fact that it rarely works long term — but this mirror goes much further. ... " 

Smart Skin Mirror

Links to some of our smart mirror and virtual beauty innovation efforts, but emphasizes skin.  Useful calibration?   In Engadget: 

The first smart mirror you can actually buy focuses on your flaws   
By Cherlynn Low  @cherlynnlow 

Daily photos of your face are meant to flag problems with your skin.

Staring lovingly at your reflection in the mirror gets old, especially if it's not a magical one that tells you you're the fairest of them all. But what if all that time you already spend in front of a mirror could actually make you the most beautiful person in the land? Many smart mirrors already make this promise, but HiMirror is the first one you can actually buy, and it costs $189. The secret sauce comes in the form of a camera that captures your au naturel visage to analyze your complexion, before offering you tips on how to get better skin. I tried it out recently and was impressed by how many things it could do.

The 5.5-pound mirror is more cutesy than the futuristic thanks to its pink accents. It houses a 14-inch LCD screen and has a camera sitting in the middle of a ring flash, which helps light your face for better images. HiMirror snaps a picture of your face every day to analyze your wrinkles, dark spots, dark circles, red spots and pores. The idea is to track how your skin changes over time, and flag your so-called problems so you can take "early measures to improve upon your skin and achieve your beauty goals."     ... ' 

Still Looking for Full Featured Smart Mirrors

We featured the idea, and saw it at other consumer innovation labs a decade ago.  Mostly it dealt with using the mirror for cosmetics options and delivering basic 'news and weather' information in the morning. That alone is fairly easy to do.  A mostly one way visual and audio interface.  Stationary to places in the home, the office, or even in conference rooms.  But it seems the demand today is beyond the basic.

   A new example is being promoted:  " ... The problem with the Perseus smart mirror is the same as with all of the ones that preceded it: over-promising a set of features that will be incredibly difficult to deliver on. These include: voice recognition, video streaming, an HD camera with time-lapse capabilities, fully customizable widgets, third-party apps, and the list goes on ..  " .  Video at the link. 

Some of the idea is similar to the Amazon Echo with a display.  The capability is stationary.  You could mount any number of them in  place.  Say as part of wall displays in an office.  The inclusion of camera enables conferencing and gestural interaction, as well as displaying tailored information.  But that's beyond a mirror.

Also in retail to sell things that we wear like clothes, cosmetics and eyeglasses.  Experimented with several of these examples.

See my previous mirror posts.

Smart Mirrors

A long time augmented reality challenge.  Use a mirror with embedded display to interact with consumers.  In the store and at home.  We experimented with the idea a number of times without great success.  Here an example that is at the edge of privacy too.

Magic Mirrors in Retail

Evan Schuman looks at the magic mirror concept.   Good thoughts.   An idea that we examined and featured at times in the innovation center for cosmetics marketing. (See Mirror tag below)   Including one developed by  IDEO.  Was difficult to integrate with physical retail.  We collaborated with a number of lab experiments in the area.    Will it be any different with better integrated virtual reality?

" .... Although the concept has never caught on with shoppers, retailers just can't seem to let go of the magic mirror, in its various incarnations. PayPal tried one variation last year, Bloomingdale's tried a magic mirror the year before that (having already given it a whirl in 2007), and John Lewis did it the year before that. In 2011, it was The New York Times that toyed with a magic mirror, one that would be in your own bathroom and display ads. ...  ".  

Read the full article before launching a method like this.

Amazon in the Bathroom

In Retailwire:   The next frontier, the bathroom, in all its functionality.  In the Smart home we examined many aspects of this, most notably the testing of 'smart mirrors' for both augmentation using approaches like virtual makeovers, and providing information interaction during visits.

" ... Identifying and capitalizing on previously unexplored consumer behaviors seems to be a go-to strategy for Amazon these days, as the company rolls out new offering after new offering to see what sticks. With its Amazon Lockers, its one-hour delivery and its talking in-house personal shopper, Amazon Echo, to name a few, Amazon is attempting to further engrain the company into peoples' habits and daily schedules.

Amazon now appears to be going where few other businesses have ventured. In December, the company revealed plans to address a consumer behavior that, while uncomfortable for some to acknowledge, is an unavoidable reality of the information age. ... " 

A Virtual Agent Who Thinks Like Me

Recently have seen the emergence of mirror style systems, where a system can look like me and I can use that idea to market and advertise.  But suppose I had a system that could think like me?  Logically (or not) , but also include all my habits, likes and quirks?  Derived from loyalty data.  Or Twitter streams.   Not quite what this system does, but it is the first thing I thought of when I saw the piece. It also makes me think of agent based models we had written designed to mimic consumer behavior.  (See Agent Models Link below)  Perhaps this could be another starting point for those approaches.  Yes, creepy too.

See also the recent post on Agent Models in health care.  Virtual agents who are like me, based on my health care data?  Doctors who are like mine?  ....

Smart Interaction to 'Fit' Products

In Retailwire: Same work covered in another recent post.  Another piece on smart fitting rooms to engage with consumers.  Has also often been used for virtual makeover type applications.  Here mentioning work with Nordstrom's.     I was involved with several tests of related concept projects, which provided sufficient interest for new product introduction, but not for ongoing marketing.

Shopping with Large Scale Touch Screens

E-Bay and so called 'Magic Mirror' systems in retail.  We tested the idea extensively.  Technology has continued to improve.  See the tag shelf virtualization for related technology and applications, for both in store sales and behavioral testing.

" .... At the new Rebecca Minkoff store in San Francisco, the mirrors come alive. Walk into the fitting room with, say, a blouse and a jacket, and the dark glass lights up with a suggested handbag to match. You can browse the racks at the upscale fashion boutique or swipe through “looks” on massive touchscreens. If you see something you like, you tap in your phone number, and you’ll get a text when it’s ready to try on.

From the sharp interface design to the seemingly seamless fusion of digital connectedness to physical retail, this place feels like the brick-and-mortar store of the future. But the brains behind it come from the online world. This Rebecca Minkoff store and a partner location in New York are opening for the holidays to show off eBay’s latest tech for re-inventing in-store shopping.

Yes, that eBay. ... "      Includes video demo.

Augmented Cosmetics Reality at Sephora

Have seen this idea tried many times.  Give consumers the ability to have a mirror that shoes how cosmetics will look on their face.  'The 'magic mirror' idea.   Here a new example at Sephora.  An example of augmented reality.

Another Look at Mirror Neurons

Perhaps the most written about topic in popular neuroscience a few years ago: Mirror Neurons.   It was a very popular concept that we have built in empathy systems to help us in group understanding.  Wired examines the hype.  It was particularly popular in the Neuromarketing world because of the implications that you might be able to influence these structures.

EZ Face Virtual Mirror

I just posted some questions about implementations of EZ Face Virtual Mirror  and got the following response, Thanks!

Following your post about the Virtual Mirror, here is some information about our retail project:

Duane Read – We have a kiosk at the new store at 40 Wall street. Also attached is a video that introduces our technology at DR store.
Douglas (Germany) – We have started a rollout of our kiosks in Douglas retail chain in Germany.
Galleries Lafayette (France) – We have some kiosks in GL stores in France.
Carrefour Planet (France) – We have started a rollout of our kiosks in Carrefour Planet retail chain in France ... 

 Some good examples, see the links to the above.  Good to see this is moving forward.I liked what I saw when I looked at it a number of years ago. 

EZFace Mirror Kiosk

I mentioned a test of this idea in a limited number of Wal-Mart stores last year.  A Virtual Mirror that allows you to see cosmetics, glasses, etc on your own face.   Looking for some confirmation of it still being in progress. Indications of results?   Anyone know?   Please comment or contact me.  The apparent reasoning behind its installation in stores was to decrease the number of cosmetics returns.   It can be tried online.  A quick look at the EZFace site makes no mention of a Wal-Mart test, or any other in retail.  Tell me otherwise and I will report here.   An example of in store merchandising technology we are interested in researching further. 

Update: See the response to the questions above from EZFace
.

Wal-Mart Virtual Mirror

In StoreFrontBackTalk: Evan Schuman on Wal-Mart's virtual makeover effort. We experimented with this concept in-store and in-home for a dozen years, in a number of countries. Including work with the vendor EZFace mentioned in the article:

' ... Wal-Mart this month quietly began a 10-store trial of a cosmetics system—called the Wal-Mart virtual mirror—that uses a barcode reader and a digital camera for the virtual application of makeup. What’s interesting in this 90-day trial are the ROI benefits beyond mere increased sales, such as reduced shrink (no need to throw out lipstick after a test), better availability of product and some natural social-shopping benefits via E-mail ... '