Getting the Chanel look is easier and more accessible than ever, thanks to smartphone technology. In February, Chanel introduced Lipscanner, an app that allows you to match any color you like to a Chanel lipstick, when you scan a photo of an item in your preferred color with your phone. Once the lipstick is identified based on the color you scanned, you can virtually test the suggested lipstick with Chanel’s Try On after you upload an image of your face. The company has committed not to collect your image or information from these apps, but it is clear that as the technology continues to become more powerful, it may become tempting for less conscientious developers to harvest the wealth of information users offer their favorite apps for free, unless such efforts are thwarted by data privacy laws and ethical standards for use of biometric information such as your facial image. A few states already have instituted protection with Biometric Information Privacy Acts, and two federal legislative proposals have been introduced, but not yet passed. Senate Bill 847 in the US (Commercial Facial Recognition Privacy Act) calls for an affirmative opt in for consent to use facial images. Senate Bill 3456 (Consumer Data Privacy and Security Act of 2020) also calls for affirmative consent before biometric information can be used.
Chanel is pressing even further forward with smart technology that can do facial analysis. In March, two new patents issued to Chanel. One is for a method and system to analyze facial features for a beauty consultation to deliver personalized advice. U.S. Patent No. 10,943,093 points out that for women, facial contrasts between skin and eyes, eyebrows or mouth tends to decrease with age. So properly applied makeup that increases the contrast of features can make women appear younger. Chanel’s invention scans a facial image, determines the degree of contrast and then categorizes the face in one of three groups. Depending on which group the facial image is placed in, suggestions can be made for makeup to enhance a person’s features. For images in the first group, increasing the contrast of the eye, mouth and eyebrow is recommended; in the second group, increasing mouth and eye contrast is recommended; while in the third group, increasing eyebrow and eye contrast is recommended. The contrast can be increased by either making the brow, lip or eye makeup more pronounced, or by using a lighter foundation. The program can recommend appropriate makeup products based on the assigned group.
The second new Chanel patent protects a method for building a neural network tool to determine certain qualities of an individual by analyzing an image of their face. According to U.S. Patent No. 10,956,716, the tool may be used to automate assessment of qualitative characteristics such as health, attractiveness or self-confidence. To create the tool, the first step involves training the neural network with a database of tens of thousands of facial images where the age of the person in the photo is known. Features are extracted from the photos, and age is estimated from the extracted features. The second step involves supplying the neural network with a second much smaller database of facial images that have been rated by humans for qualitative characteristics such as an estimation of health or self-confidence. The feature extraction learned by the system from the first step of training is applied to the smaller database of rated faces to automate and quantitate the qualitative characteristic as judged by humans. An estimation of health can then readily be provided by running a facial image run through the program.
The iterative learning process or training of neural networks requires a large database of images as inputs for success. Laws are beginning to protect your personal information by requiring your consent to use your image. While what is or is not legally appropriate is being hashed out, what may or may not be ethical should also be examined. When the input is your face and other information you provide such as how old you are, and/or how you are feeling emotionally when the photo is snapped, even if you expressly agree that your image may be used, it would also make sense to compensate you for the valuable data points which you are providing. Hopefully ethical considerations will soon evolve to complement legal protection in this rapidly growing area of technological innovation.
Beauty and the Law 