9 millimeters wide and less than 2 millimeters thick, its UV sensor tracks how much UV exposure you’re getting and can be worn on a fingernail, as Guive Balooch, head of L’Oreal’s tech incubator, models for us in a hotel room in Las Vegas. It can also be stuck on a watch, or even a pair of sunglasses.
The sensor will then send that data to your smartphone via NFC – pretty clever for a wafer-thin sticker that’s no bigger than, well, a fingernail. That makes it all the more surprising that L’Oreal is the one doing this.
The UV Sense will cost around $50 when it goes on sale globally next year, but until then L’Oreal is running a pilot program that people can sign up for. You’ll only need to buy one sensor, which comes in a fancily designed box complete with adhesive to stick it to things. So fancy, in fact, because it was created by Swiss designer Yves Béhar, who once served as chief creative officer at Jawbone. Béhar designed the range of designs on the sensors too, all of which were on show and varied from single colors to patterns specifically made for men, women and what Balooch calls “ironic millennials”. We didn’t get to find out what that one looks like, but it’s presumably something foreboding.
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Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!