Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Category: Photography

A Great Way to ‘AI Enhance’ Your Headshots

It’s no secret there are far too many really bad headshots all over LinkedIn, and everywhere else online for that matter.  Wouldn’t it be great if something came along to help us normal people solve that problem? Talk about a huge market opportunity! Well, something did — and you can probably guess it would be… yes, we can thank our favorite new friend, AI.

Specifically, a startup called The Multiverse AI  has brought us what they describe as an “AI Headshot Generator” that lets you “turn your selfies into professional headshots” to “boost your professional image.”  Who can’t use some of that in this day and age of… yes, friends, I’m going to say it: Personal Branding. Some examples provided by The Multiverse AI are shown here (click the image to enlarge). some examples of AI enhanced headshots

Actually, it doesn’t have to be just selfies you submit — it can be any photos that include you, by cropping into those images to show just your head and shoulders. I know, I got to test it, and I don’t think any of mine were selfies. I hardly ever shoot a selfie! But I have lots of photos that include me. (Those cropped sections, however, have to be a minimum of 512 x 512 pixels, which was a bit of a challenge for me.)

If you follow my blog, you’ve seen me write about this topic of headshots since AI became such a hot thing in 2022 — namely, in the following two posts.

Generative AI Made Me Do it

I Couldn’t Help Myself – I Did It Again

But that was about avatars, which was sort of a plaything for a while — and I created a bunch with an app called Lensa. I sure had fun with it! This new service from The Multiverse AI, however, is a big step up from that, because it produces photo-realistic images that don’t look fake,  or created by… a bot?

How Good Is It?

Well, ta-dah — I’m debuting my favorite new headshot, courtesy of my experience with The Multiverse, right here on my blog today. It’s the one in the upper right under “About Graeme.” That image replaces the one I’ve had there for more years than I can remember. So, kudos to The Multiverse for finally getting me to update that old one!

And here’s a much larger image of all the best ones I got back after my submission, so you can see the variety their service produces. (Click to enlarge.) 12 headshot images of Graeme Thickins

So, What’s the Story on This Startup?

I learned it was launched on Product Hunt back in September 2023, with good success. Who’s behind it? Well, three cofounders you can see here. And a hat-tip to Tanya, who found me on LinkedIn and requested a connection. I thought it sounded interesting, so I took her up on it. Glad I did!

By the way, another interesting way to use The Multiverse — also a much-needed service — is to create AI-generated professional headshots for your team. There are so many startups — and for that matter, larger companies — who have horribly inconsistent headshots of their teams, or their executive lineup, Well, here’s a way to fix that. Yay! I’ll be recommending it — or using it myself for certain clients.

So… how’s your headshot?

Wait, Was That My iPhone That Just Flew Over Your Head?

It could have been if I had a “PhoneDrone Ethos” prototype — I could be buzzing you! But, sigh, I don’t have one … and none of us mere mortals will until they ship in September 2016. That’s as soon as the Kickstarter page promises. Nonetheless, as I write this, the product boasts some $238,000 pledged (well exceeding the $100,000 goal), and more than 900 backers — who apparently have no problem waiting for 11 months.

xCraft, the designer and manufacturer, is a drone company that scored a record-breaking $1.5 million investment on Shark Tank recently.  Continue reading

My Snippets from Another CES — the 2014 Edition

Following on from my previous post earlier today, here are some other cool things I saw of interest during  VegasMorning the latest CES show in Las Vegas — when I wasn't working, that is (which was 90% of the time):

Phantom 2 Vision: Your Flying (drone) Camera.

DJI_Phantom_II_Vision

 

 

 

 

 

An American auto entrepreneur’s vision comes to life

Elio_Motors

 

 

 

 

 

A BitCoin ATM

BitCoin_ATM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AirHDTV … up to 186 channels (press release)

AirHDTV

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But the big Chinese company DJI, whose product is shown above, wasn't the only drone company at CES.  Minnesota-based QFO Labs (a client of mine) also was also there, though with a much smaller presence.

QFO-QuadFighter

The company showed its "Quad Fighter" product at the Nordic Semiconductor booth (one of its suppliers) in South Hall, and was a big hit there.  But the real excitement for QFO happened soon after it arrived back home, when it got a big surprise with its product being shown on national TV: Local toy-drone maker gets plug from U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (by Julio Ojeda-Zapata/St. Paul Pioneer Press).

Were you at CES 2014?  What was the coolest thing you saw?