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This is a really hard problem, do you and your team have the necessary skills to pull it off? How will the makeup actually be applied?

• joyeuse6701 11y ago
  Yes, it is a challenging problem, but we figured that's why it may attract y-combinator, a shot to the moon. I am a software engineer and believe it within my skill set to personally handle some of the challenges of the product. From a high level view there is: 3d-scanner (hardware & software component): At this level developing or incorporating a 3d scanner to obtain precision data of a user's features. Make-up application data (software): This is the heart of the application. It is essentially printing data in the form of: makeup layer, position (x,y,z), applicator angle, color, opacity and flow. This requires software for it's creation, previewing and modification and distribution (smartphone app ideally) as well. Printer software & hardware: So the actual hardware of an airbrush/applicator with precise x,y,z positioning, angle, and opacity and flow control. The airbrush itself has to consider problems of cleaning much like inkjet technologies had to consider. The software is of course interpreting the makeup application data resulting in hardware actualizing it. I do not have experience in this field, but I believe it is within reason to form a team of engineers that does, likely from the 3d printing industry. I hope that helps paint a better picture of what we'd like to accomplish.
  • buss 11y ago
    You are seriously underestimating the difficulty of producing the hardware you're envisioning. Have you gotten input from roboticists and industrial designers? Consider applying lipstick. You'll need a real-time high resolution scan of the person's face (you can't just take a single scan and be done with it, a human is never still), be able to accurately find the lips and their borders, have an articulated robotic arm, grasp the lipstick, have enough of the lipstick out to apply without breaking, apply the right amount of pressure, and finally follow a constantly moving contour on a person's face. You could probably do blush with an airbrush, but you couldn't do a base or concealer because you'll have to brush or smear that on and you're back to following contours with an articulated arm. I just don't believe the necessary technology exists for this to do it in a consumer device for less than several hundred thousand dollars.
    • joyeuse6701 11y ago
      Perhaps you're right. Though I think the hardware you may be envisioning is different from ours. In the consideration for lipstick application, this device isn't meant to be a robotic copy of a human arm applying various cosmetics a la the jettisons. The goal is to provide makeup application: general cosmetics to specific regions of the face in a given order. From this you can develop cosmetics that can be applied via airbrush and perhaps another applicator (gel, or inkjet) that render this effect. One does not need to stick to conventional solid lipstick nor it's means of application to achieve the desired look of red upon lips. Granted there is mention of kinematics which implies robotic arms and that design path is still a consideration, but recently we have trended towards a means of application via a moveable applicator head attached to rails and guides similar to 3D printing. As provided in previous links, airbrush is already used for applying foundation, lips, eyeshadow and blush. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbrush_makeup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbrush_makeup