You already use your cell phone to take calls, get directions, get email, and send text messages. But imagine if your cell phone could act as a beauty adviser to help you pick the right color of makeup. Though her background is in performance and networking technologies, HP Principal Scientist Nina Bhatti wanted to do something to help her fellow women with the agonizing chore of finding the right shade of foundation. So she did what any educated, science-minded woman would do: invent a way to solve the problem.
To use her invention, a consumer needs only a camera-equipped cell phone. It works like this: With your camera phone in hand, you simply hold a color-calibrated card (that you’d get at a makeup counter or rip out of a magazine) up near your face and take a snapshot. You’d then send your image off to a makeup company that would then forward the image to HP’s data center. HP’s data center would take the image, locate the consumer’s face, color-correct the image using the color-calibrated card as a guide, then compare the image to a database of existing skin tones. You then receive a text message back with the exact color match. (When I tried this out at HP Labs with Bhatti, the transaction took a matter of seconds and the corresponding makeup color I tried matched my skin perfectly!)
HP is currently talking to makeup companies about commercializing this system, though she wasn’t at liberty to discuss which companies or when the system would be generally available. Sometime in the future, you may be using this system to select your makeup rather than consulting the expert at the beauty counter or trying your luck at the drugstore.
The Anita Borg Institute (ABI) sat down with Bhatti to talk about this project and to get her advice about choosing a role model, moving an idea to the next level, and allowing your quirks to be your success instead of your downfall.
Anita Borg Institute: Do you have a particular mantra or a saying that inspires you?
Nina Bhatti: When I need an answer, I don’t have a particular saying, I just look to what inspires me in that moment. There’s one saying from a Carly Fiorina (former chairman and CEO of HP) speech a few years ago inspires me, “Confidence does not require perfection.” Then again, there’s another expression, “Competence begets confidence,” that inspires me as well. It’s more about, what is the message I need right now that will help me understand my current challenge.
There’s an underlying theme here a project or a goal is like a long-distance ride, like the Pony Express. You’ll have to change to fresh horses along the way. You’ve got to change horses and not be afraid to do that. Sometimes you need an engineering horse, at other times, you need to try out the business horse, and so on. You’ll need to master new skills along the way.
ABI: Who is the woman who has inspired you? Or, what inspired you to take the career path you have?
NB: Men and women inspire me. There’s not just a single person I want to be – I see inspiration in many people I say, “Ooh, I like that way they did that.” But there’s no perfect person, that’s a tall order. Instead many people have aspects that like.
Growing up, there were not a lot of real role models. But I love the 50s and 60s science fiction movies, the ones with women scientists. She wasn’t baking cookies (not that I don’t love a good cookie). She would be powerful because of what she knew. It showed me that boys didn’t own science. Plus, both my parents were scientists so it wasn’t a real stretch for me.
ABI: What advice would you give to girls who are thinking of going into a computer science or engineering field?
NB: My advice is to go toward what gives you energy and move away from things that don’t. Same goes for people you interact with. Meet with the people who have ideas. Go with what aligns with your beliefs. If it’s not flowing, fix it. Work with the universe, align your values, and your passion will flow. Things don’t happen by accident.
It’s an excellent training for all kinds of things. Technology occupies an almost sacred position in society. The fact that you understand technology gives you power.
So if a guy is rude you, it’s his limitation, not yours. Don’t let a man steal your future, you own it and you should act like it. Forget some toady little guy in the hall. Make a joke out of his comment and don’t take him seriously.
ABI: Do you have advice for women who have great ideas, but are unsure of how to make them happen?
NB: First and foremost, you have to be able to explain your idea to others. Second, you have to ask for and honestly evaluate the feedback you receive. If no one else thinks the idea is as great as you do, either the idea is flawed or you need to change how you explain it. And third, once you have others telling you your idea is great, you need to enlist their help in improving or implementing your idea.
There is always someone at the center of an idea; however, you can’t make it happen alone. You need to build support – you do that through people not against people.
As you mature, you will learn to embrace your differences from the rest. I know a lot more about makeup than the guys I work with. I leveraged my “special” knowledge— because I have bought and used makeup—to take the leadership role. It is incredibly empowering to be able to apply your academic knowledge to a consumer problem and translate it into actionable science.
Visit this page to learn more about Bhatti or to enroll in her October 20, 2007 Intrapreneurship workshop at this year’s Grace Hopper Conference.