Prior art: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lgluqEiQow
Apply HN: Hairme – Programmable Haircuts for Men
21–30 of 31 posts
Re: Apply HN: Hairme – Programmable Haircuts for Men
#22Other commenters have mentioned safety, but if you can execute safety really well, this could work for toddlers, since they can stay still during a haircut.
You mean can't, right?
Re: Apply HN: Hairme – Programmable Haircuts for Men
#23Building just the suggest-a-haircut software could be a business in itself, and it's a lot easier to execute than trying to make motorized robotic blades that cut right next to your head yet don't ever kill or mangle you.
You can put tablets at barbershops and hair salons. The customer takes a faceshot, then the system recommends various haircuts that suit their face, complete with renderings of what they'd look like.
Re: Apply HN: Hairme – Programmable Haircuts for Men
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
IPL would be the wrong way to do it. I thought it worked by heating the hair until it dies, not burning/cutting it off. You would want to use regular electric barber hair clippers with a vacuum attachment for cut hair collection.
Sorry for the delay. Was unable to post using my account. Unsure why. I will try to share my thoughts below: 1. IPL uses light pulsated at a very high wavelength and high spectral ranges, which destroy the hair. We are looking at a lower wavelength of light (IPL-lite), which would target only the chromophore in the hair. This will also de-risk the case of skin burns etc. 2. Heating is one way of doing it, but I'm not…
As far as I can tell, all forms of optical (laser, IPL, etc) hair removal techniques all kill the hair follicles by causing them to heat up and do not actually cut the hair. There might be a magic wavelength (or combo of them) that would cut without killing the follicle, but then you will be burning hair at that point and would need very good ventilation.
There was a Kickstarter a while back that tried to make a laser shaver, but they never could demonstrate it working (they had a few very suspect videos) and it was pulled. I would be very worried about getting scammed when looking into light based hair trimming.
Basically, any form of light (laser, xenon flashlamp) with a wavelength bigger than UV pretty much only damages things by heating. UV can do chemical damage in addition to heat by causing things to fall apart, though the potential for damage to the eyes is extreme as eyes due not tolerate UV.
However, if something does exist and works, I would love to be proved wrong in this regard as one can then do some amazing things with the tech.
Re: Apply HN: Hairme – Programmable Haircuts for Men
#25Hair cutting is a huge market, your idea sounds novel, and you seem like you have the insight and know-how to invent a disruptive tool. If the results of your machine are comparable to Great Clips, and the cost is reasonable, and the device is simple to operate, you could conceivably eclipse Flowbee's market share within 4 or 5 years. On the other hand, if the quality is worse than a below average haircut and the variety of the available cuts is small, and the device is clumsy to use -- then until you fix those issues (which could take many years I would imagine) attracting customers and investors might be difficult (That is, unless you know a secret I do not.)
So with safety. An automated cutting machine that operates on human heads might be a significant legal liability. Your engineering would need to nail the tolerances just so to minimize the risk of injury. But you have thought of that. I trust you will test your machine on cheap wigs and mannequin heads before you give yourself that crew cut.
In this space there appear to be 1 patent (http://www.google.com/patents/US4602542) and several patent applications (e.g. http://www.google.com/patents/US20140137714, http://www.google.com/patents/WO2013096572A1, http://www.google.com/patents/WO2015063651A1, http://www.google.com/patents/WO2015067484A1). Don't let this deter you. Just be aware there might be legal claims on your invention.
In 2010 a Japanese company called Robo-Chop planned to open a robot barbershop in a UK mall (http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/6242617.Hair_cutting_ro...). I can find no relevant search results about them today. It might be useful to know what happened to Robo-Chop.
Enough pragmatism. I respect your idea and ambition, and it sounds like you know what you are doing. Good luck on your MVP/Beta.
Re: Apply HN: Hairme – Programmable Haircuts for Men
#26As described this seems like it would be really difficult to implement.
Why not a kinect peripheral that tracks a networked hair trimmer. Depending on the position of the trimmer, it turns on/off to avoid overcutting.
I cut my own hair sometimes with an adjustable trimmer, and the hardest part is getting the length right at the back of your head.
Re: Apply HN: Hairme – Programmable Haircuts for Men
#27Yeah. You could get like 40 vacuum haircutters and mount them helmet style. 30 second haircut.
Re: Apply HN: Hairme – Programmable Haircuts for Men
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry for the delay. Was unable to post using my account. Unsure why. I will try to share my thoughts below: 1. IPL uses light pulsated at a very high wavelength and high spectral ranges, which destroy the hair. We are looking at a lower wavelength of light (IPL-lite), which would target only the chromophore in the hair. This will also de-risk the case of skin burns etc. 2. Heating is one way of doing it, but I'm not…
As far as I can tell, all forms of optical (laser, IPL, etc) hair removal techniques all kill the hair follicles by causing them to heat up and do not actually cut the hair. There might be a magic wavelength (or combo of them) that would cut without killing the follicle, but then you will be burning hair at that point and would need very good ventilation. There was a Kickstarter a while back that tried to make a lase…
Great points there! Will definitely consider these during our R&D process. Thanks so much.
Re: Apply HN: Hairme – Programmable Haircuts for Men
#29Thanks for your feedback thus far. Just wanted to add some more info on the tech we are looking into for this project: (Still in very crude R&D stages. May or may not work. But using a single source of energy is something that we are interested in, at this stage.)
1. IPL uses light pulsated at a very high wavelength and high spectral ranges, which destroy the hair. We are looking at a lower wavelength of light (IPL-lite), which would target only the chromophore in the hair. This will also de-risk the case of skin burns etc.
2. Heating is one way of doing it, but I'm not yet sure how effective this would be, in terms of quality, pre-heating (time and energy) etc. We want to build a solution that only uses one source of energy (potentially), in this case light.
3. Ideally, the v0.01 we are working on will have a fabric attached to the inside of the helmet which will measure your head coordinates. The mechanical components will then adjust the height of the diodes (which are evenly spaced on the inside of the helmet) and then start the IPL-lite process.
4. We are consulting a prof specializing in light emission and also have an "advisor" in a dermatologist/scientist specializing in cosmetic laser.
Re: Apply HN: Hairme – Programmable Haircuts for Men
#30Perhaps it would be good to just do something with augmented reality, head set, for the person cutting the hair and give them guidance. I think that would be better. As well you don't really have to deal with lawsuits when something goes wrong. Do you have a link to a video or picture of a mock up prototype?