Taaz.com Lets You “Try On” New Looks
21Apr2008 Filed under: Startup News Author: Audrey ShedivyTaaz, a month-old online startup based in La Jolla, offers users the chance to realistically alter their appearances and test out new makeup and hairstyle looks online. Taaz.com is the result of work by UCSD professor David Kriegman and one of his students, Satya Mallick, now a Ph.D., to create an algorithm that allows you to separate gloss and nongloss in digital images.
The ultimate goal for Taaz, according to an interview last week on InventorSpot, is to link users with actual brand-name products they can experiment with online and then purchase if they’re happy with the look. This is a strong value proposition (I think most women will agree with me here; and any guy who’s had to wait on a girl testing out makeup colors in Sephora will be happy to know she can now do that experimenting at home). Initially, however, ad revenue will support the site. I noticed Sephora, Estee Lauder and Beauty.com banner ads on the site already.
Taaz is free (registration is required) and the user interface is easy to use based on my experience with it so far. You start by uploading an image of yourself with your hair pulled back. Once uploaded, you can experiment with a palette of colors and shades of foundation, eye shadow, lip gloss, and contact lenses. There are also more than 60 hairstyles you can “try on.”
The founders of Taaz are clearly savvy to the power of image sharing online as they’ve integrated the ability to upload photos to/from Facebook and MySpace into the site. So if you design a new look for yourself that you want to share (or perhaps set as your new Facebook profile picture), hypothetically, it should be easy to do. I haven’t had a chance to play with this feature yet, but if you notice that I have a completely new look on Facebook tomorrow, you’ll understand how the transformation happened.
If Taaz can work with the major beauty products manufacturers to integrate product purchase into the site experience, this startup could have a rosy future. Until then, it’s a fun novelty experience to test out new looks for yourself.
Chuck
April 21st, 2008 at 9:00 am
Taaz came out of a special technology transfer program at UCSD that helps professors and students take their inventions and technologies to market. I was lucky enough to participate in a Tech Talk Roundtable recently and spend some time with Dave Gibbons, the program’s Senior Licensing Officer for IP.
I look forward to seeing more from taaz as well as others from UCSD programs and research.
Jason
April 21st, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Very cool. Some interesting things come out of UCSD. What I like about UCSD is they then fund or help those companies after they create the technology.