Imagine a future where you didn’t have to apply makeup directly to your face. Rather, you would wear a tiny projector that would map the contours and movements of your face. This little projector would splash your face with whatever face you want to present to the world.

The OMOTE project is a collaboration between a group of engineers, artists, and other creative types that allows for real-time 3D mapping of a human face.

With that mapping data, a projector uses specific points to project images onto the face. The images follow the face perfectly as it moves, providing a real-time mask that can be nearly anything you want it to be.

OMOTE is a proof of concept at this point, but the possibilities are scintillating. Real-time 3D mapping and facial projection could make for some killer Halloween costumes and, if the projectors could be made small and nimble enough, even stage makeup.

Unfortunately, the team hasn’t provided many technical details about how the effect is created or even what type of hardware is used, so it isn’t clear just how much the technology could accomplish.

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Have you ever felt like just becoming someone entirely different? Talented makeup artist Elsa Rhae has the astonishing ability to do just that – and sometimes her transformations are so realistic they’re terrifying.

Focusing mainly on comic book and video game characters, Elsa carefully paints herself (and sometimes others) in exceptional detail. She posts time-lapse videos of some of her creations on her YouTube channel to show just how much time and work goes into her transformations.

Starting with a beautiful natural face, Elsa uses makeup and body paint to make herself into recognizable characters. It can take her up to four hours to finish one creation, but the end results look absolutely worth the time and effort.

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The cosmetics industry is a $55 billion giant, and anyone who uses makeup will understand why. A $12 four-pack of eyeshadow, a $17 bronzer, an $8 mascara – it all adds up quickly. But Harvard Business School graduate Grace Choi realized that the cosmetics industry is charging us over-the-top prices for something that technology can provide for free: color.

Her invention, Mink, is a small 3D printer that prints cosmetics using regular printer ink. And it isn’t limited to the colors you can find on the shelves – Mink can grab any color from absolutely any source. Your computer, your phone, your tablet, and your digital camera all become your color shopping devices. Find any appealing color – either from a website or via a camera – and use the color picker tool to select it.

The hex code for the color will pop up; you just paste the code into a program like MS Paint or Photoshop and send the color to the printer as a regular document. The Mink will print the color as a powder or cream in its own proprietary little container. According to Choi, the ink is FDA approved and the Mink will cost $200-$300 – a small price to pay when you think about how much money makeup-wearing people spend on cosmetics each year. The designer promises that we are about to live in a world where the internet is our cosmetics shop, and soon you’ll be able to take a picture of a friend’s lipstick and print it out for yourself at home.

(via: TechCrunch)

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Facial recognition software is used extensively around the world for various reasons. The FBI is already using it to identify suspects who are caught on surveillance cameras, and the software will no doubt fall into the hands of civilians in the future. Conspiracy theorists and people who like their privacy could simply walk around with ski masks, but that might catch some unwanted attention. An NYU technologist might have a slightly less suspicious, but still pretty attention-grabbing, solution: anti-surveillance makeup that will make your face essentially invisible to facial recognition software.

Adam Harvey’s research started out with the reverse engineering of facial recognition algorithms. He generated patterns that were more or less visual representations of the algorithms used by the software to identify human faces. Harvey then tried to identify the simplest patterns that could be used on a human face to disguise it. He then laid the patterns over pictures of human faces and ran them through facial recognition software. Above, the images with a red square indicate where a face was identified. No red square means the software was unable to identify a human face. The “test patterns” label indicates patterns that were developed according to the research. “Random patterns” indicates doodles made not in accordance with the research. And “No patterns” indicates line drawings with no camouflage patterns applied.

Harvey says that his research could be used to develop makeup that would “hide” faces from facial recognition software. By putting dark blocks of color in strategic spots on the face, the software is foiled and doesn’t identify the image as a human face at all. Some of the patterns that foil the software are surprising: they’re small, and the location of the blocks is more important than the size. Beard-like blocks don’t usually work, but disguising the eyes is very effective. Of course, using the theory in real life would mean wearing makeup that looks like it came straight out of Blade Runner – but there are no doubt some people out there who would embrace that aesthetic.

The post About Face: Defeat Face Recognition Software With Makeup first appeared on Gajitz.