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When you think of 'beauty' or 'a major beauty brand,' which name comes to mind first? L'Oréal would likely be one of the top three brands you think of, if not the very first.
L’Oréal has earned the reputation of being a global leader in the beauty industry and from being a renowned beauty brand, L’Oréal is quickly gaining momentum as pioneers in ‘Beauty-Tech’.
L’Oréal’s Technology Incubator, designed as a startup within the Research & Innovation division, is dedicated to developing and launching groundbreaking new beauty technologies. Launched in 2012, the Technology Incubator has a presence in New York, New Jersey, California, France and Japan. The team of 30+ includes physicists, engineers, UX specialists, hardware designers and data scientists working cross functionally to help L’Oréal evolve from the world’s foremost beauty company to a technology player that is empowering consumers through personalised products and experience. L’Oreal divides its innovations into four categories: virtual beauty tech tools, inclusive beauty tech tools, personalized beauty tech, and sustainable beauty tech solutions. We at Roro are working closely with L’Oréal’s Technology Incubator and are proud to be playing a part with the latest technologies in mobile and web development towards making L’Oréal emerge as leaders in ‘Beauty-Tech’.
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board and Python script
Android App Development App Maintenance
The Opportunity
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The Audience
Skinceuticals has extremely strong links with physicians (7500+ worldwide dermatologists, plastic surgeons, nurses and medi-spas who are distributing Skinceuticals). Working very closely with physicians to the extent that they co-create products with them. The Custom D.O.S.E product was aimed towards enabling Dermatology clinics to cater to each patient’s unique skin needs.
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The Product
Once your dermatologist addresses your skincare concerns, the machine algorithm develops and formulates your perfect serum.
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Each formulation contains a mixture of various ingredients that serves different purposes.
Here’s how the 24 individual ingredients are classified:
- Exfoliating Ingredients
- Brightening Ingredients
- Enhancing Ingredients
- Clarifying Ingredients
- Base Ingredients
The Custom D.O.S.E product includes:
- A label printer for the custom seal.
- A precision machine for mixing and dispensing ingredients.
- An Android tablet app for customization based on skin type and condition.
Our Contribution
We at Roro focused on three key areas:
- Ensuring easy mixing of the ingredients.
- Accurately dispensing the serum.
- Customizing based on the user's skin type and condition.
The Custom D.O.S.E was designed to address these challenges efficiently using a tablet application. We developed a simulator in Python that emulates the Custom D.O.S.E machine.
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At Roro, we developed and are maintaining the tablet application to work efficiently with the D.O.S.E machine, ensuring precise serum dispensing for each patient at dermatology clinics. The app manages the dispensing mechanism using custom speed profiles for the plunger and controls the mixer by communicating over BLE. Since 2018, we have focused on building and maintaining a tablet application, offering the following services:Here’s how the 24 individual ingredients are classified:
- Machine simulation using a Nordic BLE board and Python script
- Android app development
- App maintenance
The Impact
Interaction Design using BLE
Augmented Reality using ModiFace Technology
The Opportunity
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The Audience
L'Oréal's development of the Brow Magic product is driven by a deep understanding of their target customers and the specific needs and pain points related to eyebrow grooming and makeup. L’Oréal identified that individuals with sparse or uneven brows are looking for effective solutions to address naturally thin brows. The target audience of L’Oréal has been the following shopper personas-
- Cost-Conscious Shoppers: Consumers who want salon-quality results without the recurring expense of professional treatments. This would include invasive procedures such as microblading and tattooing, which can be painful and requires regular touch-ups. These procedures can cost upto $200 to $1000.
- Beauty Enthusiasts: Individuals who are passionate about makeup and beauty trends, always looking for the latest products to enhance their routine.
- Busy Professionals: People with hectic schedules who desire quick and efficient beauty solutions that do not compromise on quality.
- Tech-Savvy Consumers: Customers interested in innovative beauty tools that incorporate the latest technology.
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Basis this understanding, L’Oréal was able to categorise the customer needs into -
- Precision and Customization: Customers need tools that allow for precise application to achieve their desired eyebrow shape, thickness, and style.
- Time Efficiency: Busy lifestyles necessitate products that can deliver results quickly without requiring a lot of time or effort.
- Consistency: Users need reliable tools that provide consistent, professional-looking results with every use.
- Ease of Use: Many customers prefer products that are easy to use and do not require advanced makeup skills.
L'Oréal identified a significant gap in the market for a product that combines precision, ease of use, and time efficiency with advanced technology. The Brow Magic product addresses these specific needs and pain points.
The Product
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Our Contribution
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We at Roro did the research, created the PoC for the AR features and then fleshed out the iOS application to be showcased at events like CES and VivaTech.
Here's a synopsis of the user flow and the work involved in building the application:
- Welcome Screen
- Analyze Your Current Brows: Utilizing the Vision framework, ARKit, and Modiface SDK, the application analyzes your brows to determine the starting position for printing and measures the brows' precise length. The length is used to generate the print image for the brow overlay, and the starting position helps users decide the starting point during the print flow using the handheld makeup applicator.
- Home/Try-On Experience: Users can try different eyebrow overlays (micro brow, filled, and combo) and adjust configurations such as color, thickness, arch, inner, and outer length to find the perfect combination.
- Application Prep
- First Time Device Setup
- Printing: The app communicates with and controls the Prinker device via BLE to send print files, helps users decide the starting point for printing, and instructs them on how to move the printer in a controlled manner to achieve the desired brows.
- Finish and Save
L’Oréal has been an active participant at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) since 2018. CES is an annual trade show organised by the Consumer Technology Association, which typically hosts presentations of new products and technologies in the consumer electronics industry. By the last quarter of 2022, L’Oréal aimed to showcase the Brow Magic App at CES 2023 and we partnered with L’Oréal to make this happen.
At this stage, the partnership with Prinker was at the first prototype phase. During this prototype, we together planned and achieved to improve the communication between the Brow Magic App and Prinker. L'Oréal's goal at CES 2023 was to demonstrate the printing capability on hand or paper, and this was successfully achieved. Here’s a video showing the demo at CES 2023 - [CES 2023] L’Oréal Brow Magic demonstration
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The challenge with the initial prototype showcased at CES 2023 was accurately detecting the starting position of the eyebrow on the user's face. To address this, L’Oréal upgraded the printer with a more precise camera and we implemented algorithms to detect the eyebrow's starting point, ensuring accurate placement of the print. Additionally, we made several improvements to the overall user interface and other minor adjustments.
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The Impact
Future B2C customers
Development of MVP featuring Lips,
Hair and Full-makeup modules.
The Opportunity
The answer lies in a powerful tool known as Sentiment Analysis. This fascinating field of study uses advanced algorithms and natural language processing to automatically gauge the emotional tone behind a sea of text. By analysing patterns and word choices, sentiment analysis can determine whether the overall sentiment is positive, negative, or neutral, providing valuable insights that help businesses tailor their strategies, improve customer satisfaction, and even predict market trends. L’Oréal has been leading the way in using sentiment analysis to generate ideas for products that deeply resonate with consumers.
The global market for Sentiment Analytics is estimated at US$4 Billion in 2023 and is projected to reach US$10.1 Billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 14.2% from 2023 to 2030.
The Product
Mood Mirror is a remarkable tool that goes beyond conventional AR virtual try-ons used by many brands today. For instance, platforms like Nykaa in India offer an AR interface allowing users to virtually try on products and make decisions based on how they look. The key difference with Mood Mirror is its advancement towards letting the technology decide for the user which options are most appealing.
Here's how it works: You sit in front of your laptop with the Mood Mirror application running, utilizing the webcam to continuously capture your facial expressions. These expressions are analyzed in real-time by a service called Affectiva, which provides a C++ SDK for facial expression analysis. As you interact with the virtual try-on, Affectiva interprets your emotional and physiological responses—such as levels of happiness, surprise, or specific facial movements like jaw drops or mouth openings.Mood Mirror then processes this data to discern which products or shades elicit the most positive reactions from you. Unlike traditional methods where users decide for themselves, Mood Mirror offers insights into which shades you prefer and which you don't, based on your real-time emotional cues. This integration of video and sentiment analysis represents an innovative approach in enhancing user interaction and decision-making processes.
Our Contribution
Our collaboration began with a proof of concept (POC), presented by L'Oréal to test the feasibility of their ambitious vision. The POC aimed to unify disparate tools and systems—including Affectiva’s Emotion AI for emotion analysis—into a comprehensive platform. After extensive research and development across multiple fronts, the POC was finalized in November 2023, paving the way for Mood Mirror.Integrating Affectiva’s Emotion AI: Mood Mirror utilizes Affectiva’s Emotion AI to analyze facial expressions and predict moods. This technology measures nine core emotion metrics and 20 facial expression metrics (e.g., brow raise, lip press, smile), mapping them to emotions based on EMFACS (Friesen & Ekman) mappings. Affectiva’s classifiers, trained on over six million facial videos from diverse demographics, deliver real-time engagement and valence scores, ensuring reliable emotional insights in various real-world conditions.
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Adding to its sophistication, Mood Mirror integrates ModiFace’s Face Analysis technology, delivering an ultra-personalized makeup recommendation experience. From just a selfie, ModiFace uses AI diagnostics to analyze over 20 facial features, including:
- Skin Tone and Undertone
- Face Shape and Nose Shape
- Eyebrow Shape and Thickness
- Hair Color, Type, and Length
- Eye Color and Type
- Mouth Shape
Through an interactive session, users can see these cosmetics virtually applied using ModiFace’s AR layer in a live webcam feed. Users can choose makeup looks, lipstick shades, or hair color swatches and begin an interactive session. During the session, the selected options are virtually applied in real-time using ModiFace's AR layer. As users see themselves with each virtual cosmetic, their emotional reactions are analyzed by Affectiva. At the end of the session, these insights are used to inform the user about the looks they responded to most positively.
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Our development of Mood Mirror involved several key technical components.
- We utilized Electron JS, a framework for building cross-platform applications, to create the foundation of our application. This ensured compatibility across different operating systems while maintaining performance and flexibility.
- We integrated a sophisticated sentiment analysis model from Affectiva using a C++ module. This model allows real-time analysis of users' emotional responses captured through their webcam feed, providing deep insights into their reactions to different products or shades.
- We implemented a Python script to enhance functionality by creating virtual webcams from the primary webcam feed.
- We paid meticulous attention to the application's design, ensuring it not only functions flawlessly but also provides an intuitive and aesthetically pleasing interface for users to interact with effortlessly.
The Audience
Mood Mirror is designed with dual functionality, primarily catering to researchers within L'Oreal. In a research setting, subjects interact with the application using two separate windows on a Windows machine—one on their laptop and another displayed on an external screen for the researcher. As subjects navigate through the app, displaying their emotional responses to various products, researchers can meticulously analyze these reactions. This setup allows researchers to discern which emotional cues are significant for product evaluation, offering insights that are typically challenging to capture through traditional methods like sales interactions or surveys. The ultimate aim is to develop a comprehensive makeup module that integrates different cosmetic elements like eyeliner, eyebrow products, foundation, and lip shades. This research-driven approach enables experts to refine product combinations and packaging strategies based on nuanced emotional feedback, allowing for more informed consumer offerings in the future.
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Researchers utilize the application in controlled lab settings where subjects volunteer to use the app and provide emotional responses to various products. This process, already established within L'Oreal's labs, is streamlined and consolidated through Mood Mirror, replacing disparate tools and systems with a unified platform. The consumer module, while planned for future rollout, is currently more focused on marketing applications. This module allows showcasing of Mood Mirror's capabilities at events and demonstrates its potential for consumer engagement, contrasting with the researcher module's emphasis on rigorous research and product development within laboratory environments.