Ever find yourself wanting to throw your entire wardrobe away and start over again? You may have even considered getting a personal shopper… but what if you could get that service without even leaving your bedroom?
We've just seen the world's first smart mirror that features artificial intelligence tech to recommend clothes for your body type and fashion sense.
It's made by LG, and while it's still in the concept stage at the moment, the smart mirror was demonstrated to us on the floor at CES 2019.
The LG smart mirror scans your body type to work out your height, leg length, waist size and more. It'll then recommend clothes that will suit your measurements and overall style.
In a demo we saw, the information was generally quite accurate but it wasn’t 100% right, so you’d likely have to do some fiddling with the stats manually to make sure it has your measurements correct.
It’ll then generate an avatar of yourself on the screen that you can dress up like you're choosing your clothes in The Sims. You'll be asked the type of clothing you're looking for, such as informal or formal, shirts or sweaters, and then it'll generate an outfit for you and recommend the right sizes.
For example, in our demo we asked it to provide a sweater for the avatar and it appeared on the screen. You can then rotate the avatar, look closer to see if you like the material and then order it directly from the mirror.
These are all real clothes that you can buy and have delivered to your door. At the time of writing there are only clothes from US retailer LF, but an LG representative confirmed to TechRadar the company is looking to bring other brands and retailers into the partnership soon.
The aim is, eventually, to have hundreds of different outfits to choose from at your disposal without having to visit lots of different stores and try them on. You can also choose your outfit manually, but it's interesting to see what the AI thinks suits you best.
How this will work in the real world remains unclear, but we'd hope the artificial intelligence would be able to get a clearer picture of your likes and dislikes over time to develop a stronger sense of your style.
LG foresees this as a device for the home, but this could also be used for personal shopping experiences in stores as well. You could enter your local shopping center, stand in front of one of these and have an AI personal shopper recommend outfits to you in a matter of minutes.
To cap it off…
LG isn’t the only company debuting new smart mirror technology at CES 2019 either. Capstone has unveiled its first smart mirror, but this is a very different idea to what LG's wants to offer.
Capstone’s mirror (pictured at the top of this article) is designed for your bathroom and comes with Google Assistant built-in. The idea is you’ve got a screen in front of you when you wake up so you can ask questions, see your schedule for the day and watch the news all while brushing your teeth. It’s slightly transparent so from certain angles you’re able to see the image while also getting a clear reflection of your face.
And then there’s the Artemis smart mirror from Care OS that allows you to preview your make-up or a new hairstyle using augmented reality.
The Artemis smart mirror from Care OS
Unlike the avatar that LG’s mirror creates, this will line up the look you’re thinking of going for on top of your own face to give you a clear picture if that red lipstick is going to work with your outfit or whether you should do your hair in a different way.
It'll also be able to play tutorials on the screen so you can easily watch videos for make-up and hair tips.
We’ve seen a slew of augmented reality apps for your phone so you can preview radical new hairstyles and looks, but having this capability built into your smart mirror at home may encourage you to be more experimental with your style and give a more true-to-life realization of what you're looking at.
Care OS will debut the Artemis smart mirror in the second half of 2019, but you’ll be paying for the privilege to get the tech into your home as it’s set to start at $ 20,000.
Smart mirrors aren’t a new concept – we’ve previously seen the HiMirror Plus+ that aims to help you improve your skincare regime – but it seems 2019 may be the time that people start to install this tech in their homes.
- Check out all of TechRadar's CES 2019 coverage. We're live in Las Vegas to bring you all the breaking tech news and launches, plus hands-on reviews of everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops and smart home gadgets.