L'Oreal Smart Skin Patch Measures UV Rays; Indicates When to Apply Sunscreen [Details]

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L'Oreal joins the wearable tech industry with a new high-tech skin patch that measures the UV rays in the body and indicates the wearer when to apply sunscreen.

Instead of having sun lovers stay out of the sun, L'Oreal invented the My UV Patch which sticks like a band-aid on the skin to help consumers determine how much UV rays their body is exposed to while out in the sun.

The smart skin patch was introduced at the Consumer Electronic Show on Wednesday. According to New York Daily News, it is a skin sensor that changes colors as it reacts to the sun's UV rays. L'Oreal's skincare brand La Roche-Posay developed the ingenious idea and the patch will be available in 16 countries in the summer this year, including the U.S. and U.K.

The MY UV Patch lasts for five days, can be applied anywhere in the body and is disposable.

"Today all the wearables you see are jewellery or wristbands but not wearable in the sense that you wear them anywhere on your body," said Guive Balooch of L'Oreal's Technology Incubator to BBC. "Why would L'Oreal be interested in this? When you think about our products, the people apply them all over their body.

"Being able to have this technology to measure properties of the skin in real life anywhere you want allows us to develop really new testing methods for future products."

He added that their simple device is the pioneer of a "flexible wearable" which lasts for many days. The patch turns from white to blue in moments depending on how much UV rays it is exposed. However, the patch was not intended to remind people when to re-apply sunscreen but rather tell how much exposure the wearer has.

The company took great strides in designing the product for wearability.

"Previous technologies could only tell users the amount of potential sun exposure they were receiving per hour while wearing a rigid, non-stretchable device," said Balooch, as reported by the Daily Mail. "The key was to design a sensor that was thin, comfortable and virtually weightless so people would actually want to wear it."

However, determining how much UV exposure isn't as simple as looking at the photosensitive patch. To have a more accurate reading, users must take a picture of the patch and upload it to the My UV Patch app for a better reading. According to the outlet, the app is free for on both iOS and Android; it will also be launched around the same time as the patch as well.