Congratulations on your award! Please, tell us about yourself.

I am Kwon Minkyung at the Amorepacific Future Technology Lab. I work as a a beauty device researcher, and since joining Amorepacific, I’ve worked on developing medical and beauty devices. I was the project manager for the Myskin Recovery Platform, a CES 2022 Innovation Award Honoree.

My name is Kim Hansu, currently working at the Future Technology Lab. I began my career as a mobile phone developer, and after joining Amorepacific, I have been working on developing beauty devices. For Myskin Recovery Platform, I was in charge of hardware, lighting mirror, and sensor development.
I am Kim Yonghee, a member of the Technical Planning Team at the Digital Technology Development Division. I am currently in charge of incubating digital projects. I worked on planning and development for the Myskin Recovery Platform’s AI application.

Tell us more about this award-winning technology. Where did you get the idea from?

A mirror is a beauty tool that we use everyday. We thought that combining an analog mirror with digital technology has enormous potential that has not yet been fully showcased. This was the basis of the Myskin Recovery Platform project. With the advancement of IoT technology, it has become much easier to embed sensors in products, and smart mirrors were already available on market. But there were barriers for easy access and somewhat difficult to become familiar for everyday use. That's how we came to develop Myskin Recovery Platform; it is essentially an enhanced smart desk mirror with cosmetic lighting and tools for skin analysis. Complemented by a wireless-charging docking system for your smartphone, the product is convenient and accessible.

How does Myskin Recovery Platform work? What will it do for my skin?

Myskin Recovery Platform consists of a mirror with lighting optimized for image analysis, a small sensor to detect changes in the skin, and an AI solution application. Mobile skin analysis on a smartphone has the benefit of being available anywhere and anytime. However, the analysis may be affected by user’s camera angle, the performance of the camera built into the smartphone, and background lighting. Myskin Recovery Platform ensures that customers can analyze their skin in a consistent environment using a docking system and an adjustable lighting mirror. The small sensor checks dermis for more accurate and personalized analysis results.
On the docking system, the user’s smartphone is fixed in an optimized angle for skin image analysis, and the intensity of the lighting system that's built into the mirror is automatically adjusted based on the surrounding lighting conditions. This ensures consistent analysis environment regardless of who uses it, where or when. Then, the small contact sensor checks the inner condition of the skin that may not be readily visible to the naked eye on the image taken.
Images and data taken from the sesor are then transferred to the Myskin Recovery Platform application installed on the smartphone. With AI solution developed by Amorepacific R&D Center and the Digital Division, each customer can get a personalized skincare solution and resolve their skin problems using their own smartphones. Two core technologies of the AI solution are the skin analysis algorithm and product recommendation algorithm. The skin analysis algorithm in particular learns from images and data that have been collected by our Clinical Research Lab to produce the analysis and recommendations. Even at this very moment, the lab together with Amorepacific AI Solution Team is continuously training the algorithm with these images and data to ensure accurate skin analysis.

We'd love to know the behind-the-scenes development story. Were there any trial-and-errors you went through?

We took many steps to arrive at the final isolated design where the lighted mirror and the system (the application in smartphone) are separate. Our initial design of Myskin Recovery Platform was an all-in-one type where the mirror works simultaneously as a display, like a conventional smart mirror. However, this design had poor color accuracy, and because reflections and displays overlapped, visuals were poorly identifiable. With our designers, we did many tests on prototypes with real users to solve these issues. In the end, we took a bold step and decided to separate the mirror and the system. With this design, customers were able to use their smartphones which, in the end, improved accessibility to the platform.
But things did not end there. We did a pilot test with this design. We observed that because the analysis was solely based on the image of the skin surface, the recommendations were not able to reflect minute changes in skin conditions that customers actually felt. That’s why we decided to add a small contact sensor. Environmental factors, for example, wearing a mask, weather conditions, exposure to pollution, and use of cosmetics, all affect the skin conditions even though their impact may not be visible right away. So we thought a sensor could help analyze the skin more accurately, even its inner state like hydration or elasticity. With the sensor, My Skin Recovery Platform was able to truly become a hyper-personalized beauty device.

When will you release Myskin Recovery Platform? What's your plan on using this award-winning technology?

With changes in the way we shop and other constraints resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak, many skin analysis services have become contactless. In line with this trend, Myskin Recovery Platform allows customers to analyze their skin conditions at home using their smartphones quickly. And as the name implies, it can be used as a ‘platform’ and work with other sensors or devices to recommend products based on the analysis results. There are many possible applications of the technology. We are working to connect the Myskin Recovery Platform with our CES 2021 Innovation Award Honoree, the personalized beauty solution blending device Formularity. Our vision is to expand this kind of convergence and integration between beauty solutions and devices for more diverse, personalized applications.