L'Oreal's New Wearable Monitors Your Skin's UV Exposure From Your Thumbnail

L'Oreal doesn't exactly fit anyone's idea of being a technology brand, but it's been a constant presence at CES for the past 2 years.

During its third appearance at the Las Vegas consumer show this year, the company has unveiled a tiny smart wearable called "UV Sense", especially designed to monitor how exposure to the sun is impairing your skin. The NFC-backed, battery-costless device is just 2 millimeters thick and is meant to be worn on your thumbnail.

L'Oreal Introduces a Thumbnail-Sized Wearable to Monitor UV Exposure

The smart thumb tag is made in partnership with MC10, the same medical technology lab behind wearable stats-monitoring tattoos designed by Northwestern University professor John Rogers.

At its earlier appearances at CES, 50'Oreal had introduced a dye patch which changes colour on exposure to the dominicus likewise as a smart hairbrush to monitor the wellness of your scalp, so the clothing is not new territory for the company.

Thumbnails get optimal exposure to sunlight and have, thus, been chosen by 50'Oreal as the about favorable seat for the UV Sense patch. Users can clothing the smart tagcontinuously for up to two weeks, after which information technology tin be reused but with a new adhesive patch. Users will get surplus of these patches as UV Sense is crafted to shop data of upwardly to 3 months.

Within its pocket-sized confines, the smart patch packs an rubberband circuit consisting of a capacitor, an LED, and a smart dye which changes colour with exposure to the sunday's UV (ultraviolet) rays. Coupled with the companion apps on iOS or Android, UV Sense tin can show you lot the precise amounts of UV exposure, alert y'all of the potential risks, and recommend best practices for a stroll in the lord's day as well every bit the best fourth dimension to practise then to avoid any serious damage to the skin. It also reminds you to apply the tanked-on-SPF sunscreen.

L'Oreal Introduces a Thumbnail-Sized Wearable to Monitor UV Exposure

The smart thumb patch is expected to exist available to users in the U.S. by summer this year, and the company expects to make information technology globally bachelor in 2019, but didn't announce the expected toll.