Many people love spending a day at the beach, but we all know that too much sun can be bad for our skin. French cosmetics company L'Oreal is helping consumers keep their skin safe while enjoying the sun thanks to its new wearable that will help the user determine when its time to put on more sunscreen.
L'Oreal unveiled its My UV Patch, a stretchable skin sensor that monitors UV exposure, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Thursday, Jan. 7.
The skin sensor was developed by the company's tech incubator for its dermatological skincare brand La Roche-Posay, along with the stretchable electronics company MC10 Inc., with the goal to educate and protect consumers from harmful UV rays from the sun, while also preventing skin cancer and reducing aging.
The transparent and stretchable electronic patch adheres directly onto any area of the skin that the consumer wants to monitor. It contains photosensitive dyes that detect the user's baseline skin tone and changes colors when exposed to UV rays to reveal different levels. The patch is one square inch and 50 micrometers thick, is shaped like a heart, and can be worn for a few days.
The consumer then uploads a photo of their patch to the My UV Patch mobile app for iOS and Android that will then analyze the dye square to inform the user about how much ultraviolet radiation their skin has been exposed to.
"Connected technologies have the potential to completely disrupt how we monitor the skin's exposure to various external factors, including UV," Guive Balooch, global vice president of L'Oreal's Technology Incubator, said in a press release. "Previous technologies could only tell users the amount of potential sun exposure they were receiving per hour while wearing a rigid, nonstretchable device. The key was to design a sensor that was thin, comfortable and virtually weightless so people would actually want to wear it. We're excited to be the first beauty company entering the stretchable electronics field and to explore the many potential applications for this technology within our industry and beyond."
L'Oreal's My UV Patch is expected to become available later this year. No word yet on cost for the patch.
Source: L'Oreal
