We all live in different environments, and we all have different lifestyles. Some leave their house for work in the chill of the early dawn and some go outside at 2 p.m. when the sun is high up in the sky; some stand over fires to cook all day and others spend eight hours a day in front of a screen. Korea has four distinct seasons, which bring even more changes to our living environment. Summer is a time of humid heat and sweat while winter brings chapped lips and hands with the cold dry air. We are exposed to these changing weather conditions and so is our skin. How then does weather change affect our skin? According to Amorepacific Research Center, the skin produces more oil, loses firmness, and becomes more yellowish when it is repeatedly exposed to the temperature swings in the summer season. Now that I come to think of it, the changes in my environment were the cause of my dull looking skin and skin troubles. If I’d known about it when I was in Singapore, I could have found a solution much earlier.

In sports, high tech helps boost the caliber of athletes and supports the referee’s decision. Not only is it used in a gear kit of professional athletes including footwear and athletic wear, but it is also used to provide useful data to athletes and coaches. For example, vibration sensors are attached to the basketball backboard rim to track and record the angle of the ball's trajectory for each shot. In case of baseball, high-speed cameras are used to capture the swing speed and angle of the bat. The use of high tech in sports can provide athletes with technical feedback and insights about their performance and that's what we can call smart sports.

Many things are required for a healthy body and healthy skin; getting enough sleep, drinking a lot of water, having a healthy diet, doing moderate exercise and being in less stressful environments. Genetics are also important as there is saying that good skin starts with the genes. There are also hormones, work environment and many other things that can have an influence on our body and skin. How then can we control all of these things together to keep our body and skin healthy? Of course, there is a limit to what one person can do, or with the help of the counselor. That's where the idea of a smart solution came in. What if there is a solution that helps individuals with skincare through measurement and analysis just as smart sports equipment does? It'd be worthy of being called smart cosmetics.

A sensor is a device that measures physical properties of its surroundings, for example temperature and humidity. The size and price of the sensor depend on its shape and accuracy. There are various types of sensors used in health monitoring. Most of them come in the form of a watch or belt to help monitor health indicators. Recently, much lighter, smaller types without batteries have been developed, thanks to the advancement of technology and they are now getting ready for commercial production. We cannot tell which type of sensor is better or worse. What's more important is whether it is fit for the purpose, as every technology has its benefits and drawbacks. We looked into sensors capable of measuring the environment and the skin moisture level. There were many types of portable, compact sensors available on the market, but most of them were not able to give real-time data as they had to be kept somewhere away from the body, like the inside of a drawer or carried in a bag. That's when it came to us. Smartphones. These are the devices that we always have with us, even when we go to the toilet. We decided to attach a sensor to a smartphone and named it Smart Beauty Sensor.

It wasn't difficult to track temperature and humidity with the currently available technology. We measured and recorded temperature and humidity every 10 minutes, or every 30 minutes. (We could have used a sensor that gives a second-to-second record of temperature and humidity but it was expensive and because the app had to be always on, it drained the phone battery too fast. There is, of course, a solution to this.) The problem was how to measure the moisture level in the skin, one of the important skin health indicators that is particularly associated with the skin's barrier function. Simply monitoring temperature and humidity can make a solution, but we thought that a better solution could be provided by measuring the skin moisture levels and considering the lifestyle of the individuals, skincare products they use and the amount of water they drink. Moreover, the skin's moisture level should be measured without the users knowing. If they have to consciously measure it, it'd be difficult to collect as much data as we need for analysis. We decided to place the sensor on the front side of a smartphone to measure the skin's moisture level while users are talking on the phone, but it required a new technology. At first, we put the sensor right next to the speaker but it only measured on the area close to the ears or even in the hair. We had to develop a new kind of sensor to be placed on the front side of a smartphone.

** We thought about embedding a UV sensor into a smartphone but it had to be precisely perpendicular to the sunlight to perform the measurement, meaning that users had to consciously position their smartphone for measurement to take place, which defeated the purpose of the Smart Beauty Sensor to measure the skin's moisture level without users knowing. So, we ruled it out.

Time went by and one day, we found a transparent sensor newly developed by one of our partners. We then began a joint project to develop a transparent moisture level sensor that could be attached to a smartphone. The skin's moisture level measurement can be performed by measuring either conductance or capacitance of the skin. Our first development, the sensor attached to the phone case was visible and made with metal that measures the conductance of the skin with this transparent sensor being placed on the front of a smartphone where it comes into direct contact with the skin and measures the moisture level using the capacitance method, similar to the capacitive touch panel. It should also be able to work sensitively and yet stably to measure the skin's moisture level, which varies depending on the type of products used. We ran a series of tests to ensure its performance. We also had to optimize the size and structure of the sensor in a way that it does not affect the smartphone touchscreen. We used rectenna to harvest energy from phone signals, which together with our partner, we applied for a patent on this technology.

The Smart Beauty Sensor that monitors the environment affecting the skin wherever you are and spontaneously measures your skin's moisture level to provide you with the best possible solution for your skin; it is our dedicated effort to make better products for customers.