LGR Oddware - 1988 Avon Beauty Vision Computer
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Date: 2022-04-14
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Comments and reviews: 10
Aidan
I heard Toshiba and immediately recalled some very fond memories of an old family laptop from 2007/2008. I can't remember the model. All I remember is it had a black lid, black palmrest and keyboard, and a physical volume wheel on the front. It also had some kind of button thingy that detected when the lid was closed. It came preinstalled with Vista IIRC which honestly ran pretty great. Vista wasn't bad if you had the specs but people at the time were still on XP systems and Vista ran like garbage on those. By the time 7 came around hardware had advanced enough that it could actually run decently on most systems. I miss that laptop. I have childhood memories from when we still had that thing.
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I heard Toshiba and immediately recalled some very fond memories of an old family laptop from 2007/2008. I can't remember the model. All I remember is it had a black lid, black palmrest and keyboard, and a physical volume wheel on the front. It also had some kind of button thingy that detected when the lid was closed. It came preinstalled with Vista IIRC which honestly ran pretty great. Vista wasn't bad if you had the specs but people at the time were still on XP systems and Vista ran like garbage on those. By the time 7 came around hardware had advanced enough that it could actually run decently on most systems. I miss that laptop. I have childhood memories from when we still had that thing.
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c750dt
To Clint and anyone else interested, that measurement device is a Minolta CM-II. While not in production anymore (obviously, Minolta still sells devices of that type. I mostly associate this class of device with printing but they're appropriate for any situation where there's a need for color measurement and/or color accuracy and yes, that includes makeup. Also, for the computer. Considering how little space that software uses, and the RAM disk features of the Toshiba T-1000, I wonder if anyone has thought to run the Beauty Vision software from RAM. Despite how kitchy everything is, this is actually a pretty high tech stuff for the time.
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To Clint and anyone else interested, that measurement device is a Minolta CM-II. While not in production anymore (obviously, Minolta still sells devices of that type. I mostly associate this class of device with printing but they're appropriate for any situation where there's a need for color measurement and/or color accuracy and yes, that includes makeup. Also, for the computer. Considering how little space that software uses, and the RAM disk features of the Toshiba T-1000, I wonder if anyone has thought to run the Beauty Vision software from RAM. Despite how kitchy everything is, this is actually a pretty high tech stuff for the time.
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Nate
Hey LGR! I used to work at a paint store, we had something similar to that skin analyzer but it was for color matching paint, Its a fixed aperture low res camera with a flash on it. The computer takes the image and calc's the average rgb value of the image, then compares that with the baseline (which is most likely that flesh colored you pointed out that the analyzer sits against. Paint stores were doing similar things with this sorta tech in the 80's too! The software sure has come a long way but the hardware is relatively the same tech today.
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Hey LGR! I used to work at a paint store, we had something similar to that skin analyzer but it was for color matching paint, Its a fixed aperture low res camera with a flash on it. The computer takes the image and calc's the average rgb value of the image, then compares that with the baseline (which is most likely that flesh colored you pointed out that the analyzer sits against. Paint stores were doing similar things with this sorta tech in the 80's too! The software sure has come a long way but the hardware is relatively the same tech today.
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Matthew
God I kinda miss the days of bizarre hardware like this beauty. With the advent of modern smartphones, we just don't see the experimentation that happened from the 1950s through the 90s, before we began to realize how technology has completely taken over our lives in a million ways (many of which are very negative. You can just see the optimism for the future underlying strange devices like this weird Avon Cosmetics computer. It's a shame, but that optimism for technology just doesn't exist anymore.
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God I kinda miss the days of bizarre hardware like this beauty. With the advent of modern smartphones, we just don't see the experimentation that happened from the 1950s through the 90s, before we began to realize how technology has completely taken over our lives in a million ways (many of which are very negative. You can just see the optimism for the future underlying strange devices like this weird Avon Cosmetics computer. It's a shame, but that optimism for technology just doesn't exist anymore.
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Seamus
I never saw one of these things, but I remember it was a few times a week that some woman in a pink car with pink clothes would come knock on the door and say -Avon, calling! - Can you imagine how different things were back then that young women would walk right into random people's houses? It was a different world.
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I never saw one of these things, but I remember it was a few times a week that some woman in a pink car with pink clothes would come knock on the door and say -Avon, calling! - Can you imagine how different things were back then that young women would walk right into random people's houses? It was a different world.
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Stephan
when your the avon lady and you come over with this hardware. you wish to be seen as very professional at what you do.
thats why i dont get that the programmer put in some diddly mario esque sound in this. beep beep beppie beepppp.
totally loses the professional look you iwsh to attain
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when your the avon lady and you come over with this hardware. you wish to be seen as very professional at what you do.
thats why i dont get that the programmer put in some diddly mario esque sound in this. beep beep beppie beepppp.
totally loses the professional look you iwsh to attain
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Intellidiot
looks like there's an oldskool camera flashlight in the thing. They have to be charged with huge capacitors, and that 's what you hear I'm guessing. Leds did exist back then, but not the high power white ones. The skincolor sensor is probably a bad camera XD
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looks like there's an oldskool camera flashlight in the thing. They have to be charged with huge capacitors, and that 's what you hear I'm guessing. Leds did exist back then, but not the high power white ones. The skincolor sensor is probably a bad camera XD
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Pleasureincontempt
What a delight. With this, you have serious clout in ruining an industry that makes money by constantly shaming certain people by appearance; Buy this shit, otherwise you-re worthless. Pretty sure Cosmo, GQ and other publishers do it to this day.
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What a delight. With this, you have serious clout in ruining an industry that makes money by constantly shaming certain people by appearance; Buy this shit, otherwise you-re worthless. Pretty sure Cosmo, GQ and other publishers do it to this day.
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Roboterpunk
I wonder if they stored the personal contact information of the customer for, er, later usage. Every sales person would want to have that phone number. Yet there is no writeable drive in the device. But what-s the point printing it out then?
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I wonder if they stored the personal contact information of the customer for, er, later usage. Every sales person would want to have that phone number. Yet there is no writeable drive in the device. But what-s the point printing it out then?
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Bloody
The quiz thing might be useful for recommendations but the skin-tone analyse seems utterly pointless. Basically -You're white- Wow I couldn't have figured this out myself. Thanks for finally putting this mystery to rest technology!
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The quiz thing might be useful for recommendations but the skin-tone analyse seems utterly pointless. Basically -You're white- Wow I couldn't have figured this out myself. Thanks for finally putting this mystery to rest technology!
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