Kao Corporation's multi-angle image capturing system is changing the development of cosmetics from a sensory process to a goal-oriented process. The system consists of 20 digital single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras set up around a person in a 3-meter diameter hemispherical installation. It photographs the person's face from all angles and quantifies the data.
Nikon Systems Inc. is responsible for developing the firmware for the precision instrumentation and the software for image analysis and measurement (the graphics-based software), which enables the coordinated and centralized operation of the multiple digital SLR (D70) cameras. Why is this system necessary and how will it be used? We posed these questions to Dr. Eiichiro Misaki from the First Research Office, Beauty Care Research Center, the Kao Corporation Tokyo Laboratory.
Investigating the source of beauty
Please tell us the purpose of the multi-angle image capturing system.
The multi-angle image capturing system
20 digital SLR cameras and 41 lighting devices are fixed to a hemispherical scaffold with a diameter of 3 meters. A subject at the center of the apparatus can be photographed from multiple angles simultaneously.
The development of cosmetics involves the product development department, whose marketing specialists are in touch with the customer, and the research department, clarifying what it is that the customer is looking for. A new product concept is then developed. With the process that has been employed up until now, however, the sought-after image has often been comparatively vague. For example, those developing the concept would look at photographs in fashion magazines and say, “Couldn't we go for this look?” or “Wouldn't it be great to look about 10 years younger?” Accordingly, we need the ability to share overall perceptions of skin tone and color, such as its smoothness or moistness, using our sensory images.
Our current area of responsibility, and one of our company's key products, is foundation for women. We've learned that there is a difference of five to ten years between a user's real age and the age that she feels. In other words, she probably wants to look five to ten years younger. However, subjective requirements for smoothness and moistness do not make for product development based on scientific knowledge. We hoped to be able to communicate between the customer and the developer using a common language, so that we would be able to comment on what was beautiful and what was not, while examining the skin of a 20-year-old woman and the skin of a 30-year-old woman to make the differences visible.
Up until now, research has investigated the physical properties of the skin, for example, by looking at the condition of the keratin in the surface layer of the skin or by measuring skin color. This can be carried out in numerical terms; however, it is hard to understand how these numbers relate to a sensory perception of how beautiful the skin is. In this instance, we simply look at what people regard as beautiful. For example, if shown two scenic photographs, most people will prefer the one that they feel is more beautiful. Likewise, couldn't we also compare people's age and the beauty of their skin on a visual basis?
This is how we came to try and actually photograph the skin.
Why is it necessary to take photographs from multiple angles?
A woman sits in front of a mirror and checks to see that her makeup is just right, tilting her neck and turning to the side. This is because she is seen by other people from many different directions in the course of her day or as she goes about town. Likewise, when we evaluate a product, we also view it from different directions in order to check its texture and color development. An impression of beauty or youth is probably formed from the overall picture of someone, as seen from every angle. This project is designed to create a system to reproduce this phenomenon.
Before the system attained its final form, we tried taking photographs with both a single camera, moving it from one point to the next, and using multiple cameras. Photography is easy when the subject is a stationary object, such as a product package. However, our subject is a human being. A person can keep still—without changing her expression or posture—for about a minute. In the course of our actual research, we photograph ordinary women, and on occasion also photograph small children. Rather than ask people not to move for 30 minutes (an unreasonable request), it was better to arrange a number of cameras and photograph the subject from multiple angles simultaneously.
Also, if someone is forced to keep still in an unrealistic fashion, they will cease to appear natural. People are aware that they appear differently when seen from the right and from the left. Since this system photographs the subject from all sides simultaneously, the process is completed without the subject being given any sense of where she is being photographed from.
Checking the images on the console monitor. The results of shooting photographs from 20 perspectives simultaneously are shown.