Online clothes shoppers will be told exactly what size is best for them using new software which combines with their webcam(网络摄像头) or smart phone to form a 3D tape measure.

    Scientists from Surrey University and design experts from the London College of Fashion are developing a program which can take precise waist, hip, chest and other measurements from camera images.

    Using the person's height as a starting point, the software will be able to build up a 3D image and estimate their size at various different points on the body, based on their overall proportions. The result will be a more accurate sizing guide than previous systems based on waist size or a “small/medium/large” scale, which rely on limited measurements and the buyer's perception of their own body size.

    Shoppers and retailers(零售商) who choose to sign up for the project could save millions of pounds a year in postage costs by removing the need to order multiple sizes of the same garment and send back illfitting clothes, researchers claimed. The project, sponsored by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council(EPSRC), is expected to be brought to market within two years.

    After choosing an item, the shopper will activate the software, enter their height, stand in front of their webcam or smart phone in their underwear and take a photograph.

    The software will not store or transmit the image to the Internet, but will use it to judge the person's dimensions at various points on their body.

    Philip Delamore of the London College of Fashion said, “The potential benefits for the fashion industry and for shoppers are huge. Currently, it's common for online shoppers to order two or three different sizes of the same item of clothing at the same time, as they're unsure which one will fit best.”

    It's AOL Jobs Week. We'll have many job listings, so settle in and get your resume ready. And be sure to check out the rest of our Jobs Week content: from resume writing and networking to day jobs and time management to getting a new restaurant off the ground. Lastly, don't forget to enter our sweepstakes (抽奖) for a chance to win a personal session with one of our career experts!

    Customer Service Workers

    Median salary: US$31,547

    Top cities for hiring: Houston, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Atlanta, Georgia

    We've all dealt with customer service representatives, those disembodied voices (不见其人的说话声) helping you over the phone with various company or purchase - related matters. Love them or hate them, the customer service field is currently blowing up in the United States - big time.

    Warehouse Workers

    Median salary: US$29,357

    Top cities for hiring: Houston, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Columbus, Ohio

    Without warehouse workers, everything we've ever purchased would still be sitting in a building somewhere. The rise of online shopping sites like Amazon has made warehouses a hot spot for hiring.

    Accountants

    Median salary: US$63,550

    Top cities for hiring: Chicago, Illinois; Houston, Texas; New York

    Death and taxes may be two reasons for the popularity of accounting jobs, which are frequently in high demand. You'll need to become a CPA (Certified Public Accountant 注册会计师) to get started. But while some jobs are at the mercy of the economy, the economy itself isn't going away. Neither are accountants.

    Human Resources Managers

    Median salary: US$99,720

    Top cities for hiring: Chicago, Illinois; Houston, Texas; New York

    Speaking of job security, workers in company's human resources department are always needed to find and assess new hires, along with countless other tasks essential to keeping a company well- peopled. CareeiCast named it one of the ten best jobs of 2016, because it has high income and low stress.

    A new library in Tianjin—Tianjin Binhai Public Library—recently became an online hit. The Daily Mail described it as “breathtaking”. One look at the library and you'll see why. With its very futuristic design and walls loaded with books, it's the dream library of every book lover.

    But there's a burning question lying in the back of our minds: with physical bookstores closing down one by one, what makes libraries survive the wave of digitalization? Do we really still need libraries as we've got the internet in our hands?

    Reporter Ian Clark has the answer. “Libraries are not declining in importance. People are simply changing the way they use them,” he wrote on the Guardian website. Since not everyone can afford a smartphone, a tablet or an internet connection, and not everyone knows how to search the Internet correctly and efficiently, it's public libraries that make sure that these resources are available to a larger group of people.

    And one of the pitfalls that come with online materials is that they're not always reliable. “Google doesn't tell you what you're not getting, so people need to evaluate (评估) the quality of what they see on their screens,” Sarah Pritchard, dean of libraries at Northwestern University, told Northwestern Research Magazine. And libraries are usually where that “evaluation” happens.

    But we still need the physical space that a library provides. It's something that's called a “third place”, according to the Seattle Times. This is a place in which we can fully concentrate on our study and work without easily getting distracted. Compared to other “third places” like coffee shops, libraries have a “non-commercial nature” that allows you to relax completely.

    “Nobody is trying to sell you anything in the library. There is no pressure to buy and there is no judgment of your choices,” Anne Goulding, a professor at Victoria University in New Zealand, wrote on the Newsroom website.

    Back in 1988, Red Delicious made up 70 to 80 percent of the domestic apple market. Over the years, farmers sold a lot of them because they looked great. But they had a floury texture (质地), and people want an apple that's firm, crisp(脆的)and juicy. I started searching for one. By 1994, threatened by varieties from Japan and New Zealand, the U.S. apple industry and Washington State University agreed that we had to grow our own.

    First, we cross-pollinated(授粉) existing apples: Collect pollen from one flower, put it on the tip of a pencil eraser, and rub it into another. We crossed dozens of crisp, tasty varieties such as Gala, Fuji, and Pink Lady. But the best breed came out of Honey Crisp and Enterprise parents. We grew the cross-bred seeds into 5-foot trees, grafted those to rootstocks(根茎) to make them start producing quickly, and planted them in evaluation gardens. A few years later, they fruited—and we began tasting.

    So I would walk down long rows of hundreds and thousands of trees, and when I found an attractive fruit, I'd bite, chew, spit it out. Most were terrible, but when I found one with good texture and taste, I'd pick 10 or 20 of them. Then I put them in cold storage to see how they would hold up after a few months. After that, three or four researchers sat down and tasted every apple. We checked acidity and sugar levels, which can break down over time, and tested firmness and crispness using instruments that measure pressure and cell breakdown.

    When we found exactly what we wanted, we planted and tested them all over again. Eventually, we ended up with the Cosmic Crisp. It can spend nine to 12 months in storage, and stay crisp, firm, juicy and sweet.

    Every month we look at a different artist. We think Haroshi is super cool—he makes sculptures(雕塑) from skateboards.

    Haroshi is in his late 30s. He's a skateboarder but he also makes things from wood. He began skateboarding when he was 15 years old and he loved it. He used to skate every day. Now, if you know anything about skateboarding, you'll know that skateboards don't last forever because they break. But Haroshi didn't throw his out because he was fond of them. Over time he built up a big collection and at the same time he learnt about all the different types of skateboard. Surprisingly, not all skateboards are of the same shape and actually they are often built in different ways. By the time he was 25, he had an enormous collection of old skateboards.

    He decided he had to do something with them so he started to cut them up. As he was doing that, he noticed some interesting patterns in the wood. He then cut more and stuck them on top of each other. The first thing he created from the wood was a piece of jewelry. He created something new from something old.

    Nowadays, however, he is known for his extremely large 3D wooden sculptures. His ideas generally come from skateboarding culture, ranging from skateboarding cats to cool trainers, but also everyday topics such as hurting yourself, getting better, being crazy about something and of course, growing up. All skateboarders will understand these. Haroshi has made over 40 pieces and each piece takes a very long time. There is no doubt that he is very talented but he's had no formal art training. He taught himself.

    Haroshi held an exhibition in London last month and three of us from @teenattack went along. As we entered the first room, we saw a huge bird that covered one wall. It was absolutely enormous! There was also a sculpture called Ordinary life. It looked like a broken leg—a very common problem, of course. It's incredible to think that these sculptures are all made from broken skateboards. But there's something else that is really interesting about Haroshi's work.

    In the twelfth century a sculptor called Unkei placed a glass ball in each of his works to show the heart of the piece. Haroshi also places something inside his sculptures—a piece of broken skateboard. In this way, he gives his sculptures life. We think that is just awesome!

    Everywhere I look outside my home I see people busy on their high-tech devices, while driving, walking, shopping, even sitting in toilets. When connected electronically, they are away from physical reality.

    People have been influenced to become technology addicted. One survey reported that “addicted” was the word most commonly used by people to describe their relationship to iPad and similar devices. One study found that people had a harder time resisting the allure of social media than they did for sleep, cigarettes and alcohol.

    The main goal of technology companies is to get people to spend more money and time on their products, not to actually improve our quality of life. They have successfully created a cultural disease. Consumers willingly give up their freedom, money and time to catch up on the latest information, to keep pace with their peers or to appear modern.

    I see people trapped in a pathological(病态的) relationship with time-sucking technology, where they serve technology more than technology serves them. I call this technology servitude. I am referring to a loss of personal freedom and independence because of uncontrolled consumption of many kinds of devices that eat up time and money.

    What is a healthy use of technology devices? That is the vital question. Who is really in charge of my life? That is what people need to ask themselves if we are to have any chance of breaking up false beliefs about their use of technology. When we can live happily without using so much technology for a day or a week, then we can regain control and personal freedom, become the master of technology and discover what there is to enjoy in life free of technology. Mae West is famous for proclaiming the wisdom that “too much of a good thing is wonderful.” But it's time to discover that it does not work for technology.

    Richard Fernandez, an executive coach at Google acknowledged that “we can be swept away by our technologies.” To break the grand digital connection people must consider how life long ago could be fantastic without today's overused technology.