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Nnnnnnnnnope, not letting a robot anywhere near my head with sharp stuff. Have you thought about how you will get people comfortable with this idea? Even with

Nnnnnnnnnope, not letting a robot anywhere near my head with sharp stuff. Have you thought about how you will get people comfortable with this idea? Even with clippers, with a guard, you can still do some damage to someone's skin (and, you know, giving them a horrendous looking haircut). I'd imagine many people would be extremely wary of such a contraption. >So we're building a robot that comes in kiosk form and lives in airports, malls, and offices. You book an appointment, come in, get your cut, and go about your day; all without talking to anyone. How are you handling sanitation? Actually cleaning all the hair up? Water for easier cutting (dry hair, curly hair, etc changing the moisture levels can change the ease of cutting)? Washing hair that has product in it? Adding product? Upselling and making a good chunk of your profit by selling overpriced product? What about the fact that this is all regulated at a state level in the United States and most (if not all) require a cosmetology license to cut hair with varying levels of education and hours required before. What about other public health laws/requirements? Dropping a salon in a mall, in a contained area, is one thing but dropping a kiosk in the middle of an airport or mall is another. What sort of system do you plan for when someone is unsatisfied with the outcome? How do you plan to handle "no I don't like that, can you change it a little"? What about the fact that human heads are not uniform or even symmetrical? What about natural parts? How does the buyer communicate they want their sidebrowns at this level, their bangs at this level, keep/lose the widow's peak, etc? What about people that don't want a bowl cut or a buzz cut? What about someone that has lice? Open wounds? Isn't remotely clean? Will it confuse excessively dry skin with lice and refuse service? What happens when a pair of clippers snag on someone's hair, do they just sit there waiting for a passerby to cut their hair so they can be freed? Do they wait for mall security to tell them it's time to leave because the mall is closing? Do they have to wait for the kiosk babysitter to come back from their smoke break? What if there is a power outage? Mechanical failure? Does the person leave with only a percentage of their hair cut, is there a second system that can resume, is there a battery backup, will the components most prone to failure be able to be replaced in that session by the equipment to continue? How do you clean the chair that gets sat in? The floor around it? Hair will fall, regardless of a vacuum. How will you minimize noise? Filter the exhaust? How often will the filter(s) need serviced? What happens if there is a vacuum/suction failure and hair is being left behind? How well will the system identify black hair on someone with dark skin? Blonde hair on someone with very light skin? Pink hair? Blue hair? Curly hair? What if someone is balding considerably, how will it identify where to cut/not to cut? What if someone has a beard, how will it know where to terminate? What if they have bushy eyebrows? Will it confuse a several hundred dollar wool/cashmere sweater with the person's hair? How will it handle hair that is longer than a few inches?

ASalazarMX 7y ago
Despite all your good points, this is perfect for people like me who just buzz cut the same length every couple of months. No scissors or blades. It looks terrifying if you think of it as a robot barber, but who knows? maybe robot buzz cutters could even standardize hair fashion because of their massive convenience.
- ryanmercer 7y ago
  Clippers are still sharp, can still cause razor burn-like damage, can still jam, can still benefit from some hair being wet etc. I've worn a #1 or #2 all over for half my life now and have had incompetent stylists give me severe razor burn-like irritation, pull at my hair with clippers that weren't well maintained, be quite aggressive with the pressure over my scalp, regularly miss strands here and there that I then find days later in the mirror and have to trim with scissors, etc. You can also put a guard on clippers and get varying lengths of hair remaining due to the angle, then of course lining up sideburns/removing sideburns/squaring the back/leaving the back natural/cutting my widow's peak down to the skin without asking me (which many people want) etc.
- Ohn0 7y ago
  I guess I can imagine this evolving, but seems very niche. How about start with a nail painting bot?
  - ryanmercer 7y ago
    >How about start with a nail painting bot? That's actually probably far more realistic as a viable product although it would still require a human for trimming the nails, pushing the cuticles back etc but would allow for much finer detail to be done. I imagine sensors would be able to identify the nail much better too (both optically and via a physical sensor). - Some small 'receptacle' that you place the finger it, it applies a very modest amount of pressure to hold the digit still. - Optically scan the still digit to identify the nail - Some sort of stylus type device domes down and quickly probes the perimeter to create a second data point of where cuticle and skin are - Nail is then painted with the color selected and any pattern option selected - A small air hose near the application head/compartment is removing the fumes from the immediate area - Paint is cured via UV quickly - Any additional features such as stones are then placed You could do each digit individually or do all of the fingers of one hand at once, then the thumb, then the other hand. It would be quicker, capable of much finer detail, etc. You'd be able to have someone hammering out manicures/cutting and then send people over to a row of machines to pick exactly what they want from a screen or instantly load their preferred setting from previous visits. Someone could even design what they want in an app before hand, or purchase a special design from a community market place for a modest fee. This works great in a mall or airport because you can have minimal staff doing the trim/cuticle push/roughing up which could be done in a minute or two and then you kick people over the machines for the nail decoration, have little applicators of polish remover available for any accidental skin painting, something like a cotton swab or little sponge that is pre-moistened.

ASalazarMX 7y ago

Despite all your good points, this is perfect for people like me who just buzz cut the same length every couple of months. No scissors or blades. It looks terrifying if you think of it as a robot barber, but who knows? maybe robot buzz cutters could even standardize hair fashion because of their massive convenience.

ryanmercer 7y ago
Clippers are still sharp, can still cause razor burn-like damage, can still jam, can still benefit from some hair being wet etc. I've worn a #1 or #2 all over for half my life now and have had incompetent stylists give me severe razor burn-like irritation, pull at my hair with clippers that weren't well maintained, be quite aggressive with the pressure over my scalp, regularly miss strands here and there that I then find days later in the mirror and have to trim with scissors, etc. You can also put a guard on clippers and get varying lengths of hair remaining due to the angle, then of course lining up sideburns/removing sideburns/squaring the back/leaving the back natural/cutting my widow's peak down to the skin without asking me (which many people want) etc.
Ohn0 7y ago
I guess I can imagine this evolving, but seems very niche. How about start with a nail painting bot?
- ryanmercer 7y ago
  >How about start with a nail painting bot? That's actually probably far more realistic as a viable product although it would still require a human for trimming the nails, pushing the cuticles back etc but would allow for much finer detail to be done. I imagine sensors would be able to identify the nail much better too (both optically and via a physical sensor). - Some small 'receptacle' that you place the finger it, it applies a very modest amount of pressure to hold the digit still. - Optically scan the still digit to identify the nail - Some sort of stylus type device domes down and quickly probes the perimeter to create a second data point of where cuticle and skin are - Nail is then painted with the color selected and any pattern option selected - A small air hose near the application head/compartment is removing the fumes from the immediate area - Paint is cured via UV quickly - Any additional features such as stones are then placed You could do each digit individually or do all of the fingers of one hand at once, then the thumb, then the other hand. It would be quicker, capable of much finer detail, etc. You'd be able to have someone hammering out manicures/cutting and then send people over to a row of machines to pick exactly what they want from a screen or instantly load their preferred setting from previous visits. Someone could even design what they want in an app before hand, or purchase a special design from a community market place for a modest fee. This works great in a mall or airport because you can have minimal staff doing the trim/cuticle push/roughing up which could be done in a minute or two and then you kick people over the machines for the nail decoration, have little applicators of polish remover available for any accidental skin painting, something like a cotton swab or little sponge that is pre-moistened.