Lipstick Spies May Lurk in Your Future

Imagine that your lipstick or eyeliner keeps track of when and how often you use it; and transmits that information back to the cosmetics company. Just before you run out of lipstick, a new tube is automatically shipped to you based on your user data. Consumer products’ usage data are valuable commodities, and so having cosmetics that can tell on us may not be so farfetched. In fact, a new patent application fortells that the lipstick spies will lurk in our future.

A L’Oreal patent application (US 2020/0085168, published in March) describes a hand-held device to dampen and smooth out a user’s tremors. It is designed to be used to polish nails, apply mascara or put on lipstick in a consistent manner for those with physical conditions or injuries that cause shaky hands. It would also be handy if the standard tricks of planting your elbow on the counter to put on lipstick and mascara or planting your forearm on the edge of the table to put on your nail polish don’t work for you.

L’Oreal’s applicator includes a receiver, sensors, circuitry and a motion-compensating device. Software controls the movement of the applicator. It can also be a smart device: tracking user data and providing feedback via an RFID tag. This illustration from the patent application shows what the tool looks like and how it is held.

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The application says “the user interface can coach, track usage and compare the tracked usage to the protocol, the regimen and the routine. The user interface can store the tracked usage of the device in memory of the client device. The user interface can be used to make a purchase of any products related to the device”. So indeed, this invention makes it possible for your lipstick to spy on you.

Since women reapply their cosmetics many times during the course of the day, they normally keep lipstick with them in a pocket or purse. This device doesn’t seem to be small enough to fit conveniently into a purse, so portability may be an issue. It more likely would be used at and then kept at home.

Alternatives to the new device include a hand-stabilizing wearable aide that is already on the market. The Readi-Steadi orthotic glove assists those with tremors to put on makeup. It is a wristlet (like a fingerless glove) that may help manage mild to severe hand tremors while applying cosmetics.

Rather than becoming part of a person’s daily makeup routine, the new motion stabilizer might be a better fit as a rehabilitation tool. It could be a great addition in a physical or occupational therapist’s office. The invention may find success in a medical setting, where regaining hand control is part of a therapeutic program, and the feedback of the device could help re-train and refine a person’s use of their hands.

It’s well-accepted that facial symmetry is a basis for beauty, and this new device would certainly augment symmetry by assisting with consistent and uniform makeup application. Even so, a cautious approach to allowing collection of personal data via cosmetics may be wise.

My Aesthetician is a Robot

Beauty treatments performed by robots? Once only the stuff of science fiction novels and art exhibits like the beautification machine, automated beauty treatments are now moving closer to reality.

If you are too restless to stay still for a two-hour salon appointment to have your eyelash extensions applied, the good news is that there may be a 15 minute alternative, if Wink Robotics’ invention catches on. The California company was recently granted a patent for automating the process of installing eyelash extensions onto natural eyelashes. U.S Patent No. 10,562,178 issued on February 18, protecting a device and a method involving a robot arm and a computer vision system to do the work of an aesthetician. In its online debut as Foxeye Precision Lashes, the lofty goal of bringing automation to the beauty services market was announced.

The company also has three pending cosmetic robotics patent applications, each having to do with ensuring that an automated system that works near the eyes will be safe. US Patent Publication No. 2019/0269222 describes a mask that would shield the face and eyes and only allow eyelashes to be exposed for the treatment. U.S. Patent Publication No. 2019/0314997 describes barriers for making the robotic cosmetic applicator intrinsically safe, including physical barriers or light curtains (an array of photoelectric beams that senses intrusion into a plane of detection). In order to prep the eyelashes to make them good candidates for the robotic beautician to work on, Wink Robotics is also seeking patent protection for a method of determining whether a natural eyelash is suitably isolated for the robot to work on it using a camera, as discussed in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2019/0269223.

According to the patent applications, similar robotic systems may be used for laser skin procedures, tattooing, airbrushing, spray tanning and nail polishing.

Is this the wave of the future? Rather than jumping into robotic treatments for the delicate eye, early adopters may be more comfortable using Wink Robotics’ systems for spray tanning which is a less invasive procedure. It is possible that the concept of robotic cosmetics will more readily be accepted for tattooing as well, since it is such a a time consuming, labor-intensive process that is often done on less sensitive areas of the body. The greater precision of a finely tuned robotic device may actually make tatttooing a less painful procedure.

Because of Wink Robotics, in the future when we are asked about how great we look and who did the work, we will smile and say “my beautician is a robot – wink wink”.