Beauty Technology

In 2012, Katia Vega founded the term ”Beauty Technology,” a new subfield in Wearable Computing that embeds electronics into cosmetics. It aims to transform the body‘s surface into an interactive platform. Beauty Technology introduced several research projects such as: Conductive Makeup that detects voluntary blinking through chemically metalized eyelashes, Tech Nails that embed RFIDs into fake nails, Hairware that detects voluntary hair strokes by electroplated hair extensions as sensors and machine learning, and FX e-makeup that detects facial movements through a special effects makeup with sensors.

It opened new possibilities in the design community. There are now other researchers working on similar topics, and startups such as Oyster Nails, Ang and Jakcom that use these ideas such as the RFIDs on nails to pay the metro in London, China or Japan. She collaborated with Felipe Estevez, a former martial artist who lost use of his arms and legs after an accident. He approached Vega after one of her presentations with a new idea. Estevez asked Vega if she might design wearable “beauty tech” for quadriplegics and they created Winkimote as a proof of concept that a second skin empowered with technology could seamlessly could turn on the TV with a wink. Her designs are open source and are not patented in order to promote replicability and the advance of technology for augment human capabilities.

These projects have helped position the PI as a leader in the field of on-skin interfaces. She also developed several skills in fabrication processes, adaptation of materials with applied chemistry, electronics development, machine learning, sensing analysis, data collection, and design research methods.

Blinklifier (in collaboration with Tricia Flanagan)

AquaDJing performance at Wear + D. Performed by DJ Sankha. Mexico DF.

PUBLICATIONS

  1. Shuyi Sun, Neha Deshmukh, Xin Chen, Hao-Chuan Wang, Katia Vega. “GemiN’ I: Seamless Skin Interfaces Aiding Communication through Unconscious Behaviors”. ACM Augmented Humans, 2021. Best Demo.
  2. Be Araújo, Ada Suzany Franco, Katia Vega, Thais Castro, and Bruno Gadelha. “Beauty tech nails: towards interaction and functionality.” In Proceedings of the 19th Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1-6. 2020.
  3. Luo, Elle, Ruixuan Fu, Alicia Chu, Katia Vega, and Hsin-Liu Kao. “Eslucent: an eyelid interface for detecting eye blinking.” In Proceedings of the 2020 International Symposium on Wearable Computers, pp. 58-62. 2020.
  4. [Book] Beauty Technology: Designing seamless interfaces for Wearable Computing. (2016). Springer. Series: Human–Computer Interaction Series. Authors: Vega Katia, Fuks Hugo.
  5. Kao, C.; Mohan, M.; Schmandt, C.; Paradiso, J.; Vega, K. (2016). ChromoSkin: Towards Interactive Cosmetics Using Thermochromic Pigments. CHI 2016.
  6. Liu, X.; Vega, K.; Maes, P.; Paradiso, J. (2016). Wearability for Skin Interfaces. Augmented Human.
  7. Liu, X., Vega, K., Qian, J., Paradiso, J., & Maes, P. (2016). Fluxa: Body movements as a social display. In Proceedings of UIST . ACM.
  8. Vega, K.; Cunha, M. & Fuks, H. (2015) Hairware: The Conscious Use of Unconscious Auto-contact Behaviors. IUI 2015.
  9. Liu, X.; Vega, K.; Maes, P.; Paradiso, J. (2016). Wearability for Skin Interfaces. Augmented Human 2016.
  10. Vega, K.; Cunha, M. & Fuks, H. (2015) Hairware: The Conscious Use of Unconscious Auto-contact Behaviors. IUI 2015.
  11. Vega, K.; Cunha, M. & Fuks, H. (2015) Hairware: Conductive Hair Extensions as a Capacitive Touch Input Device. IUI 2015.
  12. Vega, K; (2014), Beauty Technology as an Interactive Computing Platfform. PhD Thesis. Advisor: Hugo Fuks.
  13. Vega, K.; & Fuks, H. (2014) Beauty Technology: Body Surface Computing, Computer, vol.47, no.4, pp. 71-75. IEEE.
  14. Vega, K., & Fuks, H. (2014, February). Beauty tech nails: interactive technology at your fingertips. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction. TEI 2014  (pp. 61-64). ACM.
  15. Vega, K., Arrieta, A., Esteves, F., & Fuks, H. (2014). FX e-Makeup for Muscle Based Interaction. In Design, User Experience, and Usability. User Experience Design for Everyday Life Applications and Services. HCII 2014  (pp. 643-652). Springer International Publishing.
  16. Vega, K., & Fuks, H. (2013, October). Beauty technology as an interactive computing platform. In Proceedings of the 2013 ACM international conference on Interactive tabletops and surfaces. ITS 2013  (pp. 357-360). ACM.
  17. Vega, K., & Fuks, H. (2013, October). Beauty technology: muscle based computing interaction. In Proceedings of the 2013 ACM international conference on Interactive tabletops and surfaces. ITS 2013  (pp. 469-474). ACM.
  18. Vega, K., Flanagan, P. J., & Fuks, H. (2013). Blinklifier: A Case Study for Prototyping Wearable Computers in Technology and Visual Arts. In Design, User Experience, and Usability. User Experience in Novel Technological Environments HCII 2013 (pp. 439-445). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
  19. Vega, K. , & Fuks, H. (2013). Empowering electronic divas through beauty technology. In Design, User Experience, and Usability. User Experience in Novel Technological Environments. HCII 2013 (pp. 237-245). Springer/
  20. Flanagan, P. J., Vega, K., & Fuks, H. (2012). Blinklifier: The power of feedback loops for amplifying expressions through bodily worn objects. In Proceedings of APCHI (pp. 641-642).

HONORS AND AWARDS

  1. Augmented Humans Conference (AHs 21, Virtual). Best Demo Paper.
  2. CNET (2017, USA) – Top 20 Latinos in Tech of 2017. 
  3. Ars Electronica Prix 2015  (2015, Vienna) – Honorable Mention Award for Beauty Technology. [the next idea] voestalpine Art & Technology Grant.
  4. MIT Tech Review (2016, Peru) – Innovators under 35 .
  5. Augmented Human (AH 2016, Geneva) – Second Prize. Best paper: “Wearability for Skin Interfaces.”.
  6. Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI 2015, Atlanta) – Best demo paper: Hairware.
  7. International Conference in Human Computer Interaction (HCII 2015, Greece) – Best paper: Winkymore. 
  8. The 8th annual international ubimedia competition, NUMA2014 (Neo Ubimedia MindTrek Awards 2014) (NUMA 2014, Finland) – Best project: Beauty Technology.

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