When covering events like MWC, we tend to focus high-profile items such as new smartphones, but there are intriguing products presented in the startup areas of the show. Lilicover is a skin care product that uses a sensor and a smartphone app. Recently launched in the USA, it aims to analyze the user’s skin to provide recommendations and track the skin’s history with detailed data.
Lillicover works by using a small camera as an optical sensor which provides a high magnification view of the outer skin layer under consistent lighting. The captured images are clear enough to measure skin-pore size, which is part of the algorithm used to determine the current status of the skin. The redness of the skin can also reveal things about the status of the skin.
Since many people have many different skin color and pigments, Lillycover has an extensive database of skin data that has been collected on 10,000 voluntary (but anonymous) patients with the help of doctors and researchers. The company said that it has worked with American and Korean dermatologists to define/classify about ~40 types of skins that the system can handle today. Although this product has competitors, the database could be a definite advantage.
The device also has sensors for things that would typically affect the skin condition, such as UV (including real-time UV), temperature and PH. With this data, the app will recommend things like putting on sunscreen or drinking water. The historical data should in theory show progress and keep the user motivated to maintain healthy skin.
Finally, it has a (low-temperature) Plasma disinfection and sterilization feature. Although this principle has been studied and widely published about, it’s hard to know how efficient it is on an actual device, without a clinical study. We didn’t have time to research this, but that would be an interesting thing to ask the brand to provide.
Lillycover should be available in the USA within the next 3 months, and the company has offices in San Jose, CA and Seoul, S. Korea.
