user: Q: This professor set out to use technology to read terrorists’ lips. Now his research is the brains behind beauty apps.

Pivoting isn’t uncommon in the tech world. A start-up tries one business, but then switches to something different. For Parham Aarabi, the founder of Modiface, changing gears was an especially big leap.

Aarabi had earned a PhD at Stanford analyzing facial features. Then as a University of Toronto professor he worked to teach computers to read lips for the defense industry.

“This was a few years after 9/11 so the idea was if you’re in a very noisy, crowded environment can you look at someone’s lips?” Aarabi told me. “Maybe not know perfectly what they’re saying because that was hard to do, but maybe if they’re saying certain words, like bomb, or other keywords, could you get those with a high probability.”

About half the time his system could accurately guess the word a person was saying. Then he heard from Allergen, the maker of Botox, which was interested in using his technology. Aarabi realized a totally different opportunity was available.

“It was a slow initial pivot for me because I knew nothing about the beauty space,” Aarabi said. “It was kind of a geeky professor trying to use his machine learning for visual tracking, I was not in any ways a beauty expert.”

Aarabi launched Modiface in Toronto in 2007, and gradually found traction. It has flourished in the last 12 months, a change Aarabi calls “astonishing.” In that time frame Modiface’s business has gone from about a dozen beauty brands to 52, including Unilever, L’OReal and Laneige. Modiface says that apps using its technology have been downloaded over 60 million times.

Modiface’s augmented reality technology makes it possible for someone with a smartphone to see what various makeups would look like on them, without actually trying the makeup. Consumers can then order the makeup from inside the app, making the experience quicker and easier.

“We have less and less time to go to physical shops to test and test hundreds of shades and colors of makeup,” said Patrycja Mothon, who leads digital products for Yves Rocher in Eastern Europe. The company started using Modiface’s technology in its app last week. “Augmented reality is the solution to offer to our customers the opportunity to discover, test and highlight their beauty, without any makeup skills. At anytime and anywhere, before purchasing online or in brick and mortars stores.”

Right now users in Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary can use it in the app. Mothon hopes to roll out the technology on tablets in Yves Rocher’s physical stores in Eastern Europe.

Matt McFarland is the editor of Innovations. He's always looking for the next big thing. You can find him on
What are the most important parts of this text?

A: A professor adapts his lip-reading technology to help smartphone users try on makeup.


Q: Magnitude 7.2 quake hits South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, triggers brief tsunami watch

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Residents of a northern town in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu ran into the streets Friday as a powerful magnitude 7.2 earthquake shook the area, police said.

The magnitude 7.2 quake rattled the island country, briefly triggering a tsunami watch for the region, officials said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injury.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck at 4.14 a.m. local time and was centered 300 miles (485 kilometers) northwest of the capital, Port Vila, at a depth of 22 miles (36 kilometers). Three more sharp quakes followed in the same area, including a magnitude 6.4 more than three hours later.

"Some people left their houses in the town — they ran out the doors," police spokesman James Tari said from Luganville, the main settlement on Espirito Santo, the main island closest to the quakes.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii issued a tsunami warning for Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and New Caledonia, but canceled the alert about an hour later.

The center's duty geophysicist Barry Hershorn said they had confirmed there was no tsunami from ocean buoys and from coastal sea level gauges in Vanuatu.

The quake was "a little bigger than usual — for me the shake was a really big one," he said. "At the moment there are no reports of injury or damage."

Authorities in Vanuatu said they were checking for information on the quake and were pleased the tsunami alert had been canceled.

"The very close proximity (of the quake epicenter) to Espirito Santo meant there was nothing much we could do" to alert residents to any danger, said Meteorological Office acting director Salesa Kaniaha.

Vanuatu — a chain of 83 islands — lies just over 1,400 miles (2,200 kilometers) northeast of Sydney.

Vanuatu is part of the Pacific "ring of fire" — an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones stretching from Chile in South America through Alaska and down through Vanuatu to Tonga in the South Pacific.
What are the most important parts of this text?

A:

assistant: WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The U.S. Geological survey says an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.2 has hit the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu.