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Cosmetic Surgeons Say Patients are Requesting to Look Like Snapchat or Instagrams Touch-Up Photos
Three dermatologists from the Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center are worried over how people are increasingly adjusting their appearances in order to attain unrealistic standards of beauty.
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Cosmetic Surgeons Say More Patients Requesting To Look Like touched Up Snapchat & Instagram Photos
Plastic surgeons say patients are coming to them with selfies of themselves edited using the filters on Snapchat or Instagram and asking to look more like the retouched photo.
Researchers at the Boston medical center have authored an article in the journal JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery, which labels the trend “Snapchat dysmorphia” and argues that filters on apps are having a disastrous impact on people’s self-esteem.
Snapchat comes with a range of filters that immediately distort photos using artificial intelligence. They can make skin appear smoother, lashes look longer and bone structure appear more angular.
The report says these filters are sometimes triggering body dysmorphic disorder, a mental illness that leads to compulsive tendencies such as excessive beauty procedures, wasting hours obsessing over non-existent flaws and withdrawing from social activities.
This trend is really concerning to doctors because filters on Snapchat provide not just idealistic standards of beauty but entirely unhuman ones, presenting “an unattainable look and are blurring the line of reality and fantasy for these patients”, according to the report.
Separately from patients specifically trying to look like their selfies, over half of plastic surgeons also report patients saying that they are seeking procedures so they can look better in selfies, according to the report.
Airbrushed, unrealistic representations of women in fashion magazines have been blamed for the increasing incidences of eating disorders and body dysmorphia in women and teenage girls. Third-party apps like Line Camera and Facetune gave users easy tools to make their faces appear thinner, more symmetrical and blemish-free, before posting them to Facebook.
The new report revealed that the kinds of facial surgery people are requesting has changed too. Previously, nose jobs were the most common request, but today people specifically want procedures that will have effects similar to selfie filters, such as nasal and facial symmetry, rhinoplasties, hair transplants and eyelid surgical procedures.
A photo of Frida Kahlo that Snapchat created for International Women’s Day in 2017, which was criticised for lightening her skin and making her features appear more symmetrical. Composite: Alamy & Snapchat
L’Oreal’ UV Sensor
The UV Sense is simple to use. Stick it on your nail, swipe it over your iPhone or Android phone, and it will wirelessly transfer UV exposure data to the companion app using near-field communication (NFC). It’s the NFC chip that also charges the device through the data transfer process.
Placing it on your thumbnail exposes the UV Sense to optimal sunlight, and the sensor is activated by UVA and UVB rays. Along with your UV report, you’ll also get some advice on on avoiding the sun, and recommendations on L’Oreal products to purchase.
The data the sensor collects is accurate, or at least that’s what L’Oreal claims.
It’s important to note the UV Sense itself strictly measures UV exposure. The app is where you can find additional information such as allergens, pollution, and other factors in the environment that can effect your skin
Pilot program and launch
The UV Sense will launch in the U.S. this summer as a pilot program. The company will continue to do testing with dermatologists and consumers, which allows L’Oreal to get even more feedback to improve the experience even better.
Sephora Uses Artificial Intelligence & Augmented Reality For Their Cosmetics
Sephora is the industry-leading chain of cosmetic stores that have used technology to position itself as the number one specialty beauty retailer in the world. While other cosmetic companies rely heavily on department store sales, Sephora offers customers a number of tech options that allow them to personalize their shopping experience by trying on makeup virtually using AR, matching their skin tone to a foundation with AI, and sampling a fragrance via a touchscreen and scented air.
Sephora’s was founded in France by Dominique Mandonnaud in 1970, and acquired by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton in 1997. The company now operates some 2,300 stores in 33 countries worldwide, with more than 430 stores across the Americas.
Sephora Virtual Artist, an AR tool that allows customers to try on thousands of shades of lipstick, eyeshadow, false lashes, and many other makeup products sold at Sephora. It also lets users go through beauty tutorials on their own face digitally to learn how to achieve certain looks. A new feature called Color Match taps AI to help customers find the right color shade for their skin tone via an uploaded photo. Virtual Artist is available in the Sephora app as well as in select stores.
For the past five years, ModiFace and Sephora experimented with AR. ModiFace worked closely with Sephora to ensure every single color of a virtual product matches the product in real life.
Customers in New York City can try out the Innovation Lab’s newest tech venture, Tap and Try. The technology lets you pick any lip or lash product on an endcap display, and immediately try it on using Sephora Virtual Artist combined with RFID scanning.
Several stores across North America offer Sephora’s Fragrance IQ experience with a first-to-market sensory technology called InstaScent. After filling out an online scent profile, InstaScent allows clients to test 18 different scents using a dry air delivery system so they can test them out without actually trying them on.
Quantum Technology To Eliminate Counterfeit Products & Fake Goods
Researchers have created a unique atomic-scale identifications based on the irregularities found in 2D materials like graphene, making it possible to fingerprint them in simple electronic devices and optical tags. Because of the materials used, the small tags could be edible and coated onto medicines.
The counterfeit industry is a huge market with imports of counterfeited or fake agoods costing nearly $500 billion in lost revenue around the world annually, with counterfeit medicines accounting for nearly $200 billion alone.
The team is also showcasing the new technology through a smartphone app that allows people to check on their own the authenticity of a product by reading whether a product is real or fake.
The customer can scan the optical tag with the app that matches the 2D tag with the manufacturer’s database.
The researchers expect the patented technology and smartphone app to be available publicly in 2018.
When light is shone on graphene, tiny imperfections shine causing the material to emit light that can be measured as a signal, unique only to that small section of material. The signal can be turned into a digital fingerprint with a number sequence.
The study was published in 2D Materials.
On the other hand in another report by the European Union, says this
eSports & Immigration
The eSports economy is expected to grow to $696 million, a year-on-year growth of 41.3% and the global eSports audience is expected to reach 385 million in 2017. Total prize money in 2016 reached $93.3 million, up from $61.0 million in 2015. According to Sports Illustrated, in 2016, eSports events sold out Key Arena in Seattle, Nationwide Arena in Columbus, the Staples Center in Los Angeles and Madison Square Garden in New York. The purse for the Seattle event, The International Dota 2 Championship, was $20,770,460, which Sports Illustrated points out is roughly double the total payout of The Masters. In 2017, major eSports competitions have been scheduled across North America, Europe, South Korea, and China, to name a few, making eSports truly international.
eSports is surging and whether or not esports professionals are appropriately considered “athletes” is hotly debated. One of the reasons this debate matters is because if they aren’t athletes, they don’t qualify for P-1 visas. And if they don’t qualify for P-1 visas, it can be very difficult for these professionals to travel to the U.S. to participate in major competitive events.
Arabian Princess Fashionista
Princess Deena Aljuhani Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia isn’t just any royal. She is a mother of three, runs a fashion business called D’NA, nurtures emerging designers (past talents include Prabal Gurung, Jason Wu, Mary Katrantzou, and Erdem), and is editor in chief of Vogue Arabia.
Soon You Can Purchase On Instagram
US-based retail brands—including Kate Spade, JackThreads, and Warby Parker—will start posting interactive photos to Instagram and allow the items to be purchased in the featured image. Each image will feature a “tap to view” callout in the lower left-hand side; tap it to reveal the name and price of the products featured in the photo (Instagram supports up to five tags). Tap a tag to open a more detailed view in another window. If you want it just click “Shop Now,” at which point you’ll be redirected to a browser view, where you can add items to your cart and check out
Break The Walls
US haircare brand Shea Moisture, is tackling differences in the representation of white and black women… The US-based haircare brand’s ad features actresses, influencers and bloggers with natural hair explaining their experience of shopping for beauty products and the issues faced by Afro-American women: ‘There is a section called ethnic and there is an aisle called beauty’. The commercial concludes with a voiceover stating that ‘We are Shea Moisture, and we can now be found in the beauty aisle – where we all belong’.
The nation’s first female, self-made millionaire made her fortune selling beauty and hair products she’d developed to African-American women, beginning in the early 1900s. Now a new line of products—Madam C.J. Walker Beauty Culture—is bringing her legacy to a new generation.
Historian A’Lelia Bundles, Walker’s great-great-granddaughter is very excited,
the product launch by Sundial Brands, is known for its SheaMoisture and Nubian Heritage lines. But instead of being available at drugstores such as CVS, Madam C.J. Walker Beauty Culture products will be sold exclusively at beauty giant Sephora and Sephora.com. The four-collection, 25-product line will be part of what the global market-research firm Mintel called in 2015the $2.7 billion black hair-care industry.
Walker was born Sarah Breedlove in 1867, the daughter of Louisiana sharecroppers. Widowed at the age of 20, Breedlove began losing her hair, and in 1905 she developed a system involving scalp preparation and lotions that revolutionized black hair care. She took the name Madam C.J. Walker after marrying her third husband, Charles Walker, and her treatment became known as the “Walker System.” She first sold her homemade products directly to African-American women. By 1910, when she moved from Pittsburgh to Indianapolis, Walker had a fleet of more than 3,000 workers who sold her product line of nearly 20 hair and skin items door to door and by mail order.
“Her immediate focus was growing hair,” said Bundles. “She created a system to cleanse hair more often in an era where many had no indoor plumbing and a lot of women were going bald. … Her initial product was a shampoo and ointment with sulfur. … The Walker System was meant to address hygiene and healthy hair and hair growth.”
Walker used her fortune to fund scholarships at the Tuskegee Institute and donated huge sums to the NAACP and the Black YMCA, among other charities. The charter of her company provided that only a woman could serve as president. When her daughter, A’Lelia, inherited Walker’s sumptuous New York City mansion, it became a gathering place for members of the Harlem Renaissance.
Walker died in 1919, but Sundial Brands CEO Richelieu Dennis is focused on continuing the legacy of this entrepreneur whose achievements he has always admired.
The Madam C.J. Walker Beauty Culture line will range in price from $24 to $32.
It’s clear that African-American hair care is big business. In its 2015 research report, Mintel noted that the market for black hair care products is up 7 percent since 2010. The report also found that products specifically targeted to black consumers are becoming more widely available as mainstream brands such as Revlon and L’Oreal develop products to address the specific needs of black buyers. Interestingly, as more women wear natural hairstyles, Mintel research shows that sales of relaxers have dropped 19 percent in the past two years.
Madam C.J. Walker Beauty Culture line brings in two beauty breakthroughs: dual-encapsulation oil technology and a natural silicone alternative.
The Madam C.J. Walker Beauty Culture line launches at Sephora and Sephora.com on March 4.
The nation’s first female, self-made millionaire made her fortune selling beauty and hair products she’d developed to African-American women, beginning in the early 1900s.
Historian A’Lelia Bundles, Walker’s great-great-granddaughter is very excited about the launch a new product called “This moment” launched by Sundial Brands, known for its SheaMoisture and Nubian Heritage lines. But instead of being available at drugstores such as CVS, Madam C.J. Walker Beauty Culture products will be sold exclusively at beauty giant Sephora and Sephora.com. The four-collection, 25-product line will be part of what the global market-research firm Mintel called in 2015 the $2.7 billion black hair-care industry.
“It is a statement to be in a place like Sephora,” Bundles said, and she is pleased that Sundial is the force behind the new line. “They have been wonderful about wanting to make sure that the legacy is part of the overall story that is going on.”
Walker was born Sarah Breedlove in 1867, the daughter of Louisiana sharecroppers. Widowed at the age of 20, Breedlove began losing her hair, and in 1905 she developed a system involving scalp preparation and lotions that revolutionized black hair care. She took the name Madam C.J. Walker after marrying her third husband, Charles Walker, and her treatment became known as the “Walker System.” She first sold her homemade products directly to African-American women. By 1910, when she moved from Pittsburgh to Indianapolis, Walker had a fleet of more than 3,000 workers who sold her product line of nearly 20 hair and skin items door to door and by mail order.
“Her immediate focus was growing hair,” said Bundles. “She created a system to cleanse hair more often in an era where many had no indoor plumbing and a lot of women were going bald. … Her initial product was a shampoo and ointment with sulfur. … The Walker System was meant to address hygiene and healthy hair and hair growth.”
Walker used her fortune to fund scholarships at the Tuskegee Institute and donated huge sums to the NAACP and the Black YMCA, among other charities. The charter of her company provided that only a woman could serve as president. When her daughter, A’Lelia, inherited Walker’s sumptuous New York City mansion, it became a gathering place for members of the Harlem Renaissance.
Walker died in 1919, however, Sundial Brands CEO Richelieu Dennis is focused on continuing the legacy of this entrepreneur whose achievements he has always admired.
The Madam C.J. Walker Beauty Culture line will range in price from $24 to $32, and while Dennis acknowledges that some might find that a little pricey, he said, “We feel that Madam Walker’s legacy is one of prestige, and one of pride.” He also says that selling it through Sephora aligns well because he sees the beauty firm as a globally recognized retailer of “prestige beauty.”
It’s clear that African-American hair care is big business. In its 2015 report, Mintel research noted that the market for black hair care products is up 7 percent since 2010. The report also found that products specifically targeted to black consumers are becoming more widely available as mainstream brands such as Revlon and L’Oreal develop products to address the specific needs of black buyers. Interestingly, as more women wear natural hairstyles, Mintel research shows that sales of relaxers have dropped 19 percent in the past two years.
Bundles says that the launch of the product line is even sweeter for her because it addresses all hair types. At 63, she says, she’s been through every possible hair journey.
“For my generation, having an Afro … we had one style, either a big blowout or a really short natural,” Bundles said. “Part of what I like about this collection is, there is something for every texture: locks, curly-kinky, wavy and heat-treated. … Now a younger generation is teaching all of us something about letting your hair speak for itself.”
The Madam C.J. Walker Beauty Culture line launches at Sephora and Sephora.com on March 4
The 53rd New York Film Festival Convergence will run September 26-27 and delve into the world of immersive storytelling with a mix of unique films, panels, and live interactive experiences.
The (Dis)Honesty Project Presents The Truth Box
Tell The Truth About A Lie—- The Truth Box is a traveling story booth and part of the larger (Dis)Honesty Project, a collaboration between behavioral scientist Dan Ariely and filmmaker Yael Melamede that aims to improve our behavior and ethics. The Truth Box explores the complex impact dishonesty has on our lives, asking participants to sit inside and come clean, on camera, about a lie they have told.
The Doghouse
A table is set for five, and on each plate rests a virtual-reality headset. Slipping them on plunges the viewer into a fully immersive experience—one of five unique points of view within the same film. Mom and Dad are meeting the older brother’s new girlfriend for the first time while the younger brother just tries to avoid an inevitable disaster. A 360 degree experience
Gamescape
Some of the most compelling stories being told today are coming from game designers blending sharp narrative and gameplay in new and exciting ways. This selection of gripping, engaging, storytelling games was co-curated by the NYU Game Center and is free and open to the public. Presented with Support from the NYU Game Center.
Sherlock Holmes & the Internet of Things
Participants attempt to solve a string of crimes unfolding throughout Lincoln Center. Do you have what it takes to become a 21st-century Sherlock Holmes? A prototype developed and run by the Columbia Digital Storytelling Lab, Sherlock Holmes & the Internet of Things is part of a massive connected crime scene taking place in over 20 countries this fall. For more information, visit sherlockholmes.io. Presented in partnership with the Columbia Digital Storytelling Lab.
Netropolitan-The Social Media Site For The Rich Only
Netropolitan is sort of an online country club social media site for affluent folks. To join just a mere 9,000.00 and 3,000.00 yearly fee.
Google’s Balloon Project Moving Just Fine
Google’s Project Loon — an ambitious experiment designed to provide rural areas balloon-powered Internet access. One year later, the company may have proven its point: this could work. Since the project was announced last June, the company has made huge strides in balloon flight time and connectivity. Google’s latest floating hotspots have been given LTE capabilities, freeing them from the range limitations the original WiFi-based designed burdened them with. These new radios offer better transfer speeds, too — as high as 22 MB/s to an antenna or 5 MB/s to a phone. More importantly, the balloons are staying aloft for much longer: earlier this year, one test circled the globe three times before dropping to the ground, and another has been floating for over 100 days . By next year, Google hopes to run multiple flights that last for more than 100 days, eventually launching a ring of 300 to 400 balloons that can circle the clone and provide continued service to specific areas.
Over 60
Tina Turner
Alfre Woodard
Meryl Streep
Jacqueline Bisset
Beverly Johnson
Catherine Deneuve
Lynn Whitfield
Phylicia Rashad
Lauren Hutton
Goldie Hawn
Cindy Joseph
Jane Seymour
Raquel Welch
Susan Sarandon
Helen Mirren
Banking Trends 2014
Self Service
The top trend for banking in 2014 will be to provide more customer access and functionality for self-serve options. The predominant discussion regarding technology focuses on whether banks can match customers’ want and need for mobile applications that address their changing requirements. Many banks are providing solutions to customers through remote applications that their staff cannot perform at their own banking centers and call centers. Making this consistent will become a necessary technology in 2014. Tablet applications will be advancing to point-of-sale staff in banks so that the face of the bank is uniform and not on two generations, as it is viewed by customers today. There has been much discussion about a cloud-based design and, if this strategic direction is selected, the shift will come quickly.
Identity 2.0
The most important bank tech trend will be the adoption of “Identity 2.0”—augmenting the contact center’s authentication process with predictive analytics across voice biometric, account, call and other metadata. Verifying identity becomes not just a fixed question-and-answer process, but a data science across multiple factors. By analyzing an interaction via a combination of “voiceprint” screening and other predictive factors, financial institutions can stop more attacks and fraudulent transactions, better identify and track known fraudsters, and improve the authentication process for legitimate customers.
The Customer Service Experience
This will include continued enhancements to online dashboards that place greater control in the hands of customers. Gone are the days of banks determining what and how information is presented to customers at the point of login to online banking sites. Through the use of customization tools and widgets, customers will determine their experience and have faster and easier access to the information they choose. The banks will also have their own dashboards better informing them of customer needs, profitability, and product usage so they can better serve them. The ways in which information is presented will also advance. Finally, as mobile payment capabilities advance in consumer banking, the corporate side of the bank will play catch up with new mobile offerings for both the smartphone and tablet.
Advanced Analytics Customers and Business
Armed with this information, banks have an opportunity to significantly impact the success of their marketing efforts to both new and existing customers. Social media is one component of the Big Data equation. The key to successfully utilizing social data lies in transforming it into truly actionable insights by layering in analytics and combining it with other sources of data. Social media, Big Data, and Predictive Analytics are some of the forces reshaping the way that bank marketers think about their roles.
Companies Fined For Online Fake Reviews
Reading online reviews of a business, can be difficult trying to determine which reviews are legitimate and which aren’t much more than a paid advertisement placed by either the company itself, or someone who got some type of kickback for writing a positive review, such as a gift certificates or free merchandise.
Some companies are being proactive and deleting or marking reviews they suspect to be fake, such as Yelp with their Consumer Alerts. The FTC already considers fake reviews illegal.
New York regulators announced their crackdown on illegal reviews, and have reached agreements with 19 different companies who will stop posting and soliciting fake reviews as well as pay $350,000 in penalties.
The crackdown, dubbed “Operation Clean Turf”, targeted both companies who purchased the fake reviews, as well as the companies who are creating the fake reviews. A total of seven companies offering “reputation enhancement” services were caught in the year-long investigation, along with their clients they post reviews for.The types of businesses caught include a laser hair removal chain, and adult entertainment club, the charter bus service U.S. Coachways, and a teeth whitening service.
In a 2011 Harvard Business School study, a researcher discovered that restaurants that increased their ranking on Yelp by one star raised their revenues by 5 to 9 percent. A 2012 Gartner study estimated that one in seven recommendations or ratings on social media sites like Facebook would soon be fake. And there have been instances where all the reviews of a product have been secretly bought and paid for by the seller of the product.
According to the press release, these were the 19 companies penalized:
- A&E Wig Fashions, Inc. d/b/a A&E and NYS Surgery Center
- A.H. Dental P.C. d/b/a Platinum Dental
- Body Laser Spa Inc.
- The Block Group, LLC, d/b/a Laser Cosmetica and LC MedSpa, LLC
- Bread and Butter NY, LLC d/b/a La Pomme Nightclub and Events Space
- Envision MT Corp.
- iSEOiSEO
- Medical Message Clinic and HerballYours.com
- Metamorphosis Day Spa, Inc.
- Outer Beauty, P.C., Lite Touch Plastic Surgery, P.C., Staten Island Special Surgery, P.C., Sans Pareil Surgical, PLLC
- Stillwater Media Group
- Swan Media Group, Inc. and Scores Media Group, LLC
- US Coachways Limousine, Inc. and US Coachways, Inc.
- Utilities International, Inc. d/b/a Main Street Host
- The Web Empire, LLC
- Webtools, LLC and Webtools Internet Solutions Ltd.
- West Village Teeth Whitening Service, LLC; Magic Smile, Inc., aka Magic Smile
- XVIO, Inc.
- Zamdel, Inc. d/b/a eBoxed
Shoppers Flock To You Tube For Pre & Post Purchase Discussions
More and more, users are flocking to YouTube for all of their pre- and post-purchase discussions. On YouTube, any product can be reviewed. There are no limits. Believe it or not, there are still plenty of products and services that you simply won’t find on Amazon or your favorite e-commerce site; those sites are limited to reviews of products they sell. YouTube is loaded with popular commercial product reviews . It’s not just about the volume and depth of YouTube reviews; it’s about the quality and the experience. Video reviews get viewed, commented on and shared (and sometime even go viral) on YouTube more than any other platform, which then sparks immediate discussion and product buzz for brands.
The Height of Skycrapers To Double With New Technology
KONE, a Finnish elevator manufacturer has unveiled a new hoisting technology that will allow elevators to travel heights of one kilometer – twice the distance than currently possible. The new development implies that the Burj Khalifa, whose longest elevator travels a distance of 504 meters, will not remain the world’s tallest building for very long.
Toshiba, manufacturer of the fastest elevator in the world, takes passengers from ground to roof in thirty seconds, rising 33.7 mph through the Taipei 101. This surpasses the speed of the Burj Khalifa’s Otis Elevator, which travels at 22 mph. UltraRope, developed by KONE, will replace the conventional steel rope used for lifting with one that is developed with a carbon fiber core and a high-friction coating.
Ongoing Information & Trends: A Weblog 
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