Passive Components Blog
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • NewsFilter
    • All
    • Aerospace & Defence
    • Antenna
    • Applications
    • Automotive
    • Capacitors
    • Circuit Protection Devices
    • electro-mechanical news
    • Filters
    • Fuses
    • Inductors
    • Industrial
    • Integrated Passives
    • inter-connect news
    • Market & Supply Chain
    • Market Insights
    • Medical
    • Modelling and Simulation
    • New Materials & Supply
    • New Technologies
    • Non-linear Passives
    • Oscillators
    • Passive Sensors News
    • Resistors
    • RF & Microwave
    • Telecommunication
    • Weekly Digest

    Advances in the Environmental Performance of Polymer Capacitors

    Vishay Releases DLA Tantalum Polymer Capacitors for Military and Aerospace

    Vishay Expanded Inductor Portfolio With More Than 2000 Stock Items 

    Paumanok Releases Capacitor Foils Market Report 2025-2030

    Modelithics Welcomes CapV as a Sponsoring MVP

    Wk 40 Electronics Supply Chain Digest

    Benefits of Tantalum Powder Stress–Strain Curve Evaluation vs Conventional Wet Test

    Electrolyte Selection and Performance in Supercapacitors

    Connector PCB Design Challenges

    Trending Tags

    • Ripple Current
    • RF
    • Leakage Current
    • Tantalum vs Ceramic
    • Snubber
    • Low ESR
    • Feedthrough
    • Derating
    • Dielectric Constant
    • New Products
    • Market Reports
  • VideoFilter
    • All
    • Antenna videos
    • Capacitor videos
    • Circuit Protection Video
    • Filter videos
    • Fuse videos
    • Inductor videos
    • Inter-Connect Video
    • Non-linear passives videos
    • Oscillator videos
    • Passive sensors videos
    • Resistor videos

    Connector PCB Design Challenges

    Efficient Power Converters: Duty Cycle vs Conduction Losses

    Ripple Steering in Coupled Inductors: SEPIC Case

    SEPIC Converter with Coupled and Uncoupled Inductors

    Coupled Inductors in SEPIC versus Flyback Converters

    Non-Linear MLCC Class II Capacitor Measurements Challenges

    Percolation Phenomenon and Reliability of Molded Power Inductors in DC/DC converters

    Root Causes and Effects of DC Bias and AC in Ceramic Capacitors

    How to Calculate the Output Capacitor for a Switching Power Supply

    Trending Tags

    • Capacitors explained
    • Inductors explained
    • Resistors explained
    • Filters explained
    • Application Video Guidelines
    • EMC
    • New Products
    • Ripple Current
    • Simulation
    • Tantalum vs Ceramic
  • Knowledge Blog
  • Suppliers
    • Who is Who
  • Events
  • Home
  • NewsFilter
    • All
    • Aerospace & Defence
    • Antenna
    • Applications
    • Automotive
    • Capacitors
    • Circuit Protection Devices
    • electro-mechanical news
    • Filters
    • Fuses
    • Inductors
    • Industrial
    • Integrated Passives
    • inter-connect news
    • Market & Supply Chain
    • Market Insights
    • Medical
    • Modelling and Simulation
    • New Materials & Supply
    • New Technologies
    • Non-linear Passives
    • Oscillators
    • Passive Sensors News
    • Resistors
    • RF & Microwave
    • Telecommunication
    • Weekly Digest

    Advances in the Environmental Performance of Polymer Capacitors

    Vishay Releases DLA Tantalum Polymer Capacitors for Military and Aerospace

    Vishay Expanded Inductor Portfolio With More Than 2000 Stock Items 

    Paumanok Releases Capacitor Foils Market Report 2025-2030

    Modelithics Welcomes CapV as a Sponsoring MVP

    Wk 40 Electronics Supply Chain Digest

    Benefits of Tantalum Powder Stress–Strain Curve Evaluation vs Conventional Wet Test

    Electrolyte Selection and Performance in Supercapacitors

    Connector PCB Design Challenges

    Trending Tags

    • Ripple Current
    • RF
    • Leakage Current
    • Tantalum vs Ceramic
    • Snubber
    • Low ESR
    • Feedthrough
    • Derating
    • Dielectric Constant
    • New Products
    • Market Reports
  • VideoFilter
    • All
    • Antenna videos
    • Capacitor videos
    • Circuit Protection Video
    • Filter videos
    • Fuse videos
    • Inductor videos
    • Inter-Connect Video
    • Non-linear passives videos
    • Oscillator videos
    • Passive sensors videos
    • Resistor videos

    Connector PCB Design Challenges

    Efficient Power Converters: Duty Cycle vs Conduction Losses

    Ripple Steering in Coupled Inductors: SEPIC Case

    SEPIC Converter with Coupled and Uncoupled Inductors

    Coupled Inductors in SEPIC versus Flyback Converters

    Non-Linear MLCC Class II Capacitor Measurements Challenges

    Percolation Phenomenon and Reliability of Molded Power Inductors in DC/DC converters

    Root Causes and Effects of DC Bias and AC in Ceramic Capacitors

    How to Calculate the Output Capacitor for a Switching Power Supply

    Trending Tags

    • Capacitors explained
    • Inductors explained
    • Resistors explained
    • Filters explained
    • Application Video Guidelines
    • EMC
    • New Products
    • Ripple Current
    • Simulation
    • Tantalum vs Ceramic
  • Knowledge Blog
  • Suppliers
    • Who is Who
  • Events
No Result
View All Result
Passive Components Blog
No Result
View All Result

L’Oreal’s Ingenious Nail Art Battery-less Sensor Detects Harmful UV Rays

8.1.2018
Reading Time: 5 mins read
A A

source: fastcodesign news

Just about every wearable has the same flaw: The battery doesn’t last. Batteries simply aren’t powerful enough to enable the design of a svelte Apple Watch that can run for more than a day between charges. That might be fine for a single prized object on your wrist, but it can’t possibly scale to the industry’s visions of smart clothing, shoes, and jewelry.
The UV Sense, however, is a wearable designed around an amazing premise. You never charge it, and there’s no battery inside. It sticks right to your body and runs for up to four weeks, powered by the same entity it’s sensing: sunlight.

RelatedPosts

Advances in the Environmental Performance of Polymer Capacitors

Vishay Releases DLA Tantalum Polymer Capacitors for Military and Aerospace

Vishay Expanded Inductor Portfolio With More Than 2000 Stock Items 

[Photo: L’Oréal]
Developed by L’Oreal in conjunction with the wearable tech company MC10 and the design studio Fuseproject, the UV Sense sticks onto a nail like a nail applique, and it measures the UV rays that your body is being subjected to at any given moment. To read this exposure  data, you sync the Sense with your smartphone to via NFC (near field communication) technology, the same thing used for those tap-and-go smartphone payments. The product’s digital interface will be shown at another data.L’Oreal released its first UV-tracking patch in 2016. It was the size of a Band-aid. It turned from white to blue over time, and to track exact UV exposure,  you had to photograph it with your phone. L’Oreal gave out one million free skin sensors it sent out to dozens of countries across the globe.

The UV Sense is smaller and more mindless to operate. From a technological stance, the UV Sense is built from almost nothing. It’s literally three components embedded in a drop of polymer: a sensor, a capacitor, and an antenna. The energy inside UV rays naturally activate the sensor, and their measurements are saved inside the capacitor. (Yes, capacitors store energy much like batteries, but rather than using chemicals to do so, they trap electric fields. The tradeoff is that capacitors can’t store much energy at all, but that’s not a problem for the low wattage of the UV Sense.) The antenna then transmits data to the smartphone–actually drawing its power from the smartphone’s radio signal itself.

[Photo: L’Oréal]
Of course, the technology was only part of the challenge in building the UV Sense. It also required a sleek user experience and industrial design, which fell to Yves Béhar’s team at Fuseproject.

“We always imagine the time when technology would be more discrete,” says Béhar, who has worked on landmark wearable electronics like the Jawbone Up. “And we’re definitely a few steps further with UV Sense, as far as being that tiny.”

But just because something is small doesn’t mean it should be invisible. “There’s definitely a question of, when it gets that small, what do you do with it? Where do you put it? How do you not lose it. And how does it just become embedded in your activities,” says Béhar.

Fuseproject began by considering where on the body the UV Sense could live. On your face, it might be shaded by a ballcap. On your wrist, it might find itself covered in the shadow of a jacket. The hand–or more specifically, the nail–was the best, always-nude part of one’s body. An added bonus was that nails are hard and they don’t sweat, meaning the UV Sense’s adhesive bottom could stick on one’s person for weeks at a time.

“The nail is a really, really interesting area. Because for women, it’s cosmetic…[so we could] almost treat it like nail art,” says Béhar, who points out that the UV Sense will come in all sorts of differing designs. “We also thought, well, it may become an accessory, something you attached to a pair of sunglasses, or your watch, or you can add to a friendship bracelet. We made it versatile in a sense. Not everyone is going to put it on their nail, so you can put it on accessories when you’re out in the summer, and sun.”

Bigger picture, to Béhar: The UV Sense is a model for a type of wearable we really haven’t seen before. It’s a single-serve sensor that doesn’t need a battery. This minimal approach is the antithesis of an Apple Watch–which measures all sorts of biometrics and promises countless functions, in a way that Béhar likens it to a multitasking laptop computer.

[Photo: L’Oréal]
“If you’re trying to do a lot more sensors, you will need more [size and] battery power,” says Béhar. “But I’m thinking about a place where the sensors are designed with a specialized purpose, and a combination of those are used throughout your day, body, and home, positioned and placed in the most optimal area, that speak to each other and give you, maybe even more precise data.”

It’s a feasible argument for the future of wearables–tiny, forgettable stickers we apply to wherever they’ll attach to our lives, to track only the bits of information crucial to our personal well-being. But does all of this effort really matter, considering that consumer data shows that many people tend to abandon their wearables within a few months of purchase? Maybe. In a trial run with its earlier UV patch. Namely, these UV sensors changed behaviors. 34% of users reported applying sunblock more often, and 37% reported that they stayed in the shade more. If such behaviors could stick over months or even years, it’s easy to imagine the compounded skin health benefit.

If you’d like to try the new product for yourself, the UV Sense will be available later this year for a yet-to-be announced price.

Related

Recent Posts

Advances in the Environmental Performance of Polymer Capacitors

8.10.2025
2

Vishay Releases DLA Tantalum Polymer Capacitors for Military and Aerospace

8.10.2025
2

Paumanok Releases Capacitor Foils Market Report 2025-2030

7.10.2025
9

Modelithics Welcomes CapV as a Sponsoring MVP

7.10.2025
2

Benefits of Tantalum Powder Stress–Strain Curve Evaluation vs Conventional Wet Test

3.10.2025
20

Electrolyte Selection and Performance in Supercapacitors

3.10.2025
16

Researchers Demonstrated High Energy Ceramic Capacitors Stable in Wide Temperature Range

2.10.2025
24

Stackpole Offers High Voltage Plate Resistors up to 40KV

2.10.2025
18

How to Manage Supercapacitors Leakage Current and Self Discharge 

1.10.2025
39

Qualification of Commercial Supercapacitors for Space Applications

1.10.2025
38

Upcoming Events

Oct 14
16:00 - 17:00 CEST

Smart Sensors, Smarter AI: Building Reliable Edge Systems

Oct 17
12:00 - 14:00 EDT

External Visual Inspection per MIL-STD-883 TM 2009

Oct 20
October 20 - October 23

Digital WE Days 2025 – Virtual Conference

Oct 21
October 21 @ 12:00 - October 23 @ 14:15 EDT

Space and Military Standards for Hybrids and RF Microwave Modules

Oct 28
8:00 - 15:00 CET

Power Up Your Design: SN6507 and the Ready-to-Use Development Kit

View Calendar

Popular Posts

  • Buck Converter Design and Calculation

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Boost Converter Design and Calculation

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Flyback Converter Design and Calculation

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • LLC Resonant Converter Design and Calculation

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • SEPIC Converter Design and Calculation

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Dual Active Bridge (DAB) Topology Explained

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Ripple Current and its Effects on the Performance of Capacitors

    3 shares
    Share 3 Tweet 0
  • What is a Dielectric Constant and DF of Plastic Materials?

    4 shares
    Share 4 Tweet 0
  • Flying Capacitors Explained

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • MLCC and Ceramic Capacitors

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter Subscription

 

Passive Components Blog

© EPCI - Leading Passive Components Educational and Information Site

  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • EPCI Membership & Advertisement
  • About

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Knowledge Blog
  • Premium Suppliers

© EPCI - Leading Passive Components Educational and Information Site

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
Go to mobile version