Smart Brush, Sleek Hair

Leveraging on-board sensors and other electronics, Keratase Hair Coach takes a scientific approach to having a "good hair" day.

Manufacturers are frantically doubling down to recast their products as “smart.” While I get the desire to hop on the IoT bandwagon, there are a lot of products out there simply trying too hard, IMHO.

Here’s one for you: L’Oreal’s new smart hairbrush introduced at CES 2017. The Keratase Hair Coach, powered by French consumer electronics firm Withings, deploys sensors and signal analysis algorithms to evaluate hair health, including measuring the effects of daily hair care routines.

The brush, to retail somewhere in the neighborhood of $200, is also tricked out with a microphone (to listen to the brushing sounds in an attempt to uncover patterns); an accelerometer and gyroscope for identifying brushing patterns (and counting those all-important brush strokes); and  three-axis load cells (not sure what this is for), according to an article that appeared in Tech Times. Also onboard are conductivity sensors to check on the status of split ends, report back on how hard or soft brush strokes are, and to determine if hair is wet or dry.

All of this important data is transmitted back to a mobile app, where the user can track all the data and tap into hair tips and advice. Does your hair frizz up or fall flat on rainy days? No worries, the app measures temperature, humidity, and wind conditions so you can properly anticipate and prepare for the effect on your locks. There’s even a daily hair breakage score so you can keep tabs on the performance of your hair-care routines.

While I’m down with tracking my steps and maybe even counting every calorie consumed, is it really necessary to have that level of monitoring for daily brushstrokes? I guess many would welcome the opportunity, but I think this hair style-challenged girl will take a pass.

About the Author

Beth Stackpole, contributing writer | Contributing Editor, Automation World

Beth Stackpole is a veteran journalist covering the intersection of business and technology, from the early days of personal computing to the modern era of digital transformation. As a contributing editor to Automation World, Beth's coverage traverses a range of industries and technologies, including AI/machine learning, analytics, automation hardware and software, cloud, security, edge computing, and supply chain. In addition to her high-tech and business journalism work, Beth writes an array of custom editorial content and thought leadership pieces.

Sponsored Recommendations

Rock Quarry Implements Ignition to Improve Visibility, Safety & Decision-Making

George Reed, with the help of Factory Technologies, was looking to further automate the processes at its quarries and make Ignition an organization-wide standard.

Water Infrastructure Company Replaces Point-To-Point VPN With MQTT

Goodnight Midstream chose Ignition because it could fulfill several requirements: data mining and business intelligence work on the system backend; powerful Linux-based edge deployments...

The Purdue Model And Ignition

In the automation world, the Purdue Model (also known as the Purdue reference model, Purdue network model, ISA 95, or the Automation Pyramid) is a well-known architectural framework...

Creating A Digital Transformation Roadmap Using A Unified Namespace

Digital Transformation has become one of the most popular buzzwords in the automation industry, often used to describe any digital improvements to industrial technology. But what...