The Hindu : Front Page : Personal computer as makeup artist

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 14, 2007
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Personal computer as makeup artist

S. Nagesh Kumar

Toshiba’s SpursEngine chip can help enhance your looks

— PHOTO: S. NAGESH KUMAR

VIRTUAL REALITY: A model tries out a virtual make-up on a notebook personal computer equipped with SpursEngine at the CEATEC 2007 in Tokyo.

HYDERABAD: “Who is the fairest of them all?” may be a question that looks-conscious men and women may pose, in future to computers, rather than to the mirror on the wall.

In what was described as the world’s first public demonstration of sophisticated real-time 3 D image processing and manipulation, the Japanese consumer electronics giant, Toshiba, recently showcased a new way to “make up” for a party or that special date, using a notebook PC. Marrying the latest in video processing technologies with consumer electronics, the company has developed “SpursEngine,” a high performance video stream processor.

A co-processor that works in cooperation with the host chip, a “Cell” processor, “Spurs Engine” is the genie that has taken real time video/image manipulation and rendering in consumer electronics to new levels of realism and image quality.

A prototype unveiled at the CEATEC (Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technology) 2007 in Tokyo, which this correspondent visited, attracted sizable crowds. They witnessed an attractive Japanese model standing in front of a notebook, trying out numerous hairstyles, shades of mascara and lipstick without ever opening her make-up kit.

Tracking her face in real-time, the laptop threw up various ways that she could present herself for the day, instantly recognising and processing changes in the model’s facial position, angle and expression and showing the results as 3D graphics. Satisfied with one of the ‘options,’ the model then picked her ‘look of the day’ and proceeded, presumably, to a mirror. Also in the reckoning are real-time body capture and face morphing targeting the lifestyle sector. It may also be of use in the medical sector and in security-sensitive environments.

Toshiba will market the product as soon as they “complete specifications for commercial production.”

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