AT THE MALL...Personalized Beauty Makeover from Mars!

Just about everybody has seen the pictures of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn sent back to Earth by NASA spacecraft. The pictures are transmitted as millions of data bits. Computer software developed by NASA puts the bits together into color pictures.

This technology has been used by Elizabeth Arden, Inc. to develop a beauty makeover computer. The computer is set up in a mall kiosk or store makeup department. The customer's face is filmed on a high resolution video camera. The software that enhances pictures from Mars ensures that the video shows the customer's real skin color.

Using the computer, the makeup specialist then applies different types of makeup to the video image - foundations, blush, mascara, eye liners, creams, powders and lipsticks. The customer watches the video screen, which can be split into four images (above left). This allows the customer to see what she looks like with three different styles of makeup, compared to her original image.