
Show HN: I'm building a robot that performs haircuts [video] - dopeboy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY_gpi_gsRI
======
dopeboy
Hey HN I'm the founder behind this. I'm a guy and I'm tired of:

* Waiting for a haircut when I book an appointment.

* The inconvenience of only having one barber that knows our style, especially when I'm traveling for work.

* The cost of a haircut, which can push beyond $50 here in the bay area.

So we're building a robot that comes in kiosk form and lives in airports,
malls, and offices. You book an appointment, come in, get your cut, and go
about your day; all without talking to anyone.

We're in open beta and charging $6 for neck fuzz cuts here in downtown
Oakland. If you're interested, pop over an email (arithmetic@gmail.com).

~~~
godot
Is this an "SF problem"? I live in the east bay (Union City) and a haircut
costs $20 at local places and I never have to book an appointment, never have
to wait, I just walk in and get it done right away and I walk out the door. I
had no idea that SF haircuts costed $50 and required booking an appointment.

~~~
jharger
I live in Albuquerque, and this sort of thing varies greatly around here.
There are certainly places that are $35-50 for a hair cut and require
appointments, but there are also barber shops and chains where you can walk in
and get a haircut right away for $10-15.

------
daenz
I've had a similar idea for awhile, and since you seem to be actively working
on it, let me share some of my thoughts:

If you had a very close camera that touched the head, you could map a person's
head pore-by-pore. By looking at nearest neighbor surrounding pores, the
camera should be able to determine exactly where it is on the person's skull.
The cutting device should be a small vacuum attached to the camera that can
suck up a few strands at a time and trim those precisely.

By combining the perfect pore mapping to the precise strand cutting, you could
write an app to customize the exact haircut you wanted, and the cutter should
be robust enough to handle it, even with unintentional movement.

EDIT>> A modification: the vacuum cutter can also serve as a strand-measuring
device. So you could go to an actual hair cutting salon, get your hair cut
perfectly, then visit the device, which will go over your pore-mapped head and
measure all of the strands to remember your "perfect" haircut.

~~~
namirez
> _The cutting device should be a small vacuum attached to the camera that can
> suck up a few strands at a time and trim those precisely._

Like Gerty in the movie Moon [1]? The problem is that it only works for
straight hairs.

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84Ewj-
BOBuc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84Ewj-BOBuc)

~~~
mc32
Or you can buy your own flowbee:
[https://youtu.be/xTi2Uyz6Snc](https://youtu.be/xTi2Uyz6Snc)

------
ropiwqefjnpoa
I am immediately reminded of this cautionary tale:
[https://pbfcomics.com/comics/automatic-
business/](https://pbfcomics.com/comics/automatic-business/)

~~~
knolax
Self driving cars, barbers, why can't they test their experimental robotic
control systems on things that don't kill/maim people so easily?

------
cbames89
Great improvement since the last video!

Are you just using Jacobian transpose for force control on the neck? I ask
because it seems a bit stiff, the red marks on the neck of the test subject
suggested to me that maybe there's a lot of noise in your force sensing, or at
least unmodeled behavior.

Due to the slow growth of test subject hair, have you found 6$ to be cheap
enough to keep your test cycles short enough?

The kinematic configuration of the arm looks odd, did you pick this to
maximize rank of the Jacobian or the manipulability matrix?

~~~
dopeboy
Awesome questions, I appreciate the curiosity.

We're using the stock force control software and plan to tweak it soon. I
couldn't tell you how it works under the hood.

We use mannequin to test and then, other body parts [0]. Long term, we want to
invest in a better testing harness. Open to ideas on how to do that.

[0] -
[https://twitter.com/manishsinhaha/status/1202078849619513345](https://twitter.com/manishsinhaha/status/1202078849619513345)

~~~
cbames89
UR website[0] seems to suggest +- 10N (a kilo resting on your neck) with their
stock implementation. I imagine you're going to want something better than
that.

What Force/Torque sensor do you use? Some of them are temperature sensitive
and require a good warm-up period before they can be used to achieve good
performance.

[0][https://www.universal-robots.com/how-tos-and-faqs/how-
to/ur-...](https://www.universal-robots.com/how-tos-and-faqs/how-to/ur-how-
tos/urscript-dynamic-force-control-20571/)

~~~
ladberg
Not OP but I've written custom force control code for a UR5e. There's a six
axis force sensor on the end effector for the e model which has a pretty noisy
raw output. After some filtering we were able to get a pretty sensitive
controller. I didn't measure it, but far less than 10N.

~~~
cbames89
Sweet, thanks for sharing your experience!

------
losthobbies
I thought this was going to be a Simone Giertz video.

I hope this takes off, I really don't like the ordeal of getting my hair cut,
the ability to sit in a Haircut-o-matic and listen to a podcast or some music
would be great.

------
glofish
What you are showing is not a haircut, the robot "shaves" the neck area - very
slowly at that.

Frankly, the approach does not seem suited to cutting hair. People will move
their heads even involuntarily. Plus there is a lot more finesse needed for
cutting hair than shaving.

------
scandox
Would suit me. I get a blade 2 all over every 6 weeks.

I always wanted to setup super cheap kiosk-based hair cutting (I was going to
call it RyanHair), but I basically felt the clippers were going to be stolen
all the time.

~~~
overcast
Why would you bother paying someone to give you a basic training cut? Just buy
the clippers and #2 blade.

~~~
ASalazarMX
I've tried, but it's not worth it. DIY is more difficult, you need more than
one mirror, you have to clean all the hair, and it definitely takes more of
your time. I have the blades but only use them for the beard.

~~~
uoaei
If it's a #2 all over you'll have no problem finding the remaining patches
with your hands. No mirrors needed, just feel your head. This is true for most
guards about #4 and below. Above that and the length of the hairs are not
different enough to feel the differences.

------
gildandstain
The Flowbee seems like a natural pairing for this project. I've never used
one, but it looks like it eliminates the finesse factor for getting all the
hairs of a given length in a given stroke.

And of course reduces itchy cleanup.

------
kleer001
Oh dear god Jesus Mary Joseph and all the saint NO.

This is too slow and too rigid. Scanning won't work in the real world. There's
no immediate feedback from the surface.

You'll want something with whiskers and you'll want something on a semi-
flexible armature. That industrial arm is terrifying.

Test it on a wriggling child.

~~~
samtimalsina
Not a regular commenter, but I had to reply. I think everyone here agrees this
is just a prototype/early work. Why would you be so dismissive of a tool that
someone is building from scratch? They are not claiming it is a finished
product. Jesus, tone it down.

~~~
Udik
That is never gonna work. Seriously. Cutting hair is a highly manual job,
requiring precision use of a number of different tools- some pretty dangerous-
on an irregular, soft and constantly moving surface. Covered in, well, long,
irregularly shaped hair. The idea of a hair cutting robot is fun, but it's
decades or more ahead of what we can do.

~~~
perl4ever
It seems a lot easier than driving a car, and your description of the task
sounds like surgical robots, which are a thing already, with superhuman
capabilities.

~~~
Udik
I don't think it is easier than driving a car- somehow it feels even harder.
Driving is a very well defined task: you are sitting in a precise position
from which you get a well defined and purely visual input, and based on that
you operate on three or four analog commands- maybe 3 degrees of freedom in
all? And while the visual environment can be complex, there are situations-
such as driving on a highway- in which the environment has already been
reduced to a schematic version of itself: a wide, mostly straight road, with
lanes and sides marked, and all other objects on it conveniently vehicle-
shaped.

Cutting hair is none of this: your position constantly changes, and the stuff
you're operating on is irregularly shaped and constantly moves and tilts and
turns. You need to manipulate small tools relying on a mix of visual, touch
and force feedback, and you need to interact with hair, which is probably
difficult to model.

I don't know much of surgical robots, but I assume they're either executing
pre-planned operations with a single tool on a completely still subject and/
or they're being controlled by a human surgeon.

~~~
perl4ever
I'm sure I've read in the past about robotic surgery allowing compensation for
a patient that is definitely not completely still, whereas traditional methods
might, say, require stopping the heart. Are they still "controlled" by a
human? Maybe, but there are different levels of control.

------
squish78
My barbershop comes with a cool feature called human interaction, which is
useful for raising serotonin levels in the brain.

~~~
catalogia
There is a certain sort of personality that despises that sort of human
contact. But I don't expect they're a large enough portion of the population
to make such a robot commercially viable.

(Also that demographic is already served by hair-cutting vacuum cleaner
gadgets.)

~~~
opportune
Usually I find barbers don’t even try talking to me because they tend to be
older and their clients tend to be older so they don’t know what to say. And I
look a lot younger than I am. Not that I want to talk to them anyway, due to
awkwardness, but seeing all the other barbers talking to their clients and
mine not even trying to talk to me somehow makes it even worse

~~~
catalogia
My barber always leaves a TV running in the corner. If you're in a talkative
mood he's more than happy to chat, but if you're the quiet sort he's content
to work quietly and listen to the TV instead. (I'm not a huge fan of TV, but
it's prompted some interesting conversations about motor sports, of which he's
a fan but which I know fairly little about.)

Before I found my current barber, I used to go to a 'hair salon' sort of place
that had very talkative hip young hairdressers. They were always friendly but
I found them harder to relate to. It was also a lot more crowded which didn't
help, and they always seemed a little disappointed when I asked for a regular
haircut.

------
kt103099
A cautionary note ...
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lgluqEiQow](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lgluqEiQow)

~~~
Tempest1981
The Jetsons haircut helmet (same era?)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XrfriIKjbs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XrfriIKjbs)

And full morning routine: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0S3Jf-
NxdI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0S3Jf-NxdI)

------
eplanit
It seems you could make version with a Flowbee[1] attached to the arm.

[1] [https://www.flowbee.com/](https://www.flowbee.com/)

~~~
dopeboy
eplanit, right there with you. There's a couple variables ahead in our list
(precision, speed, repeatability) but cleaning up the hair will eventually get
added to that list. My hunch is we'll start exerting tighter control over the
end effector (which is just a Wahl trimmer right now) as we mature.

------
vsskanth
I understand this is a prototype, but for your own safety, please use a dummy
head to test.

This arm should go nowhere near your head unless you're absolutely sure it has
all the necessary safeguards tested to not cause significant harm.

Edit: Looks like your twitter has vids showing tests with a dummy. However,
its still scary.

~~~
sansnomme
There is no better way for a software engineer to learn about the perils of
poor software and machine learning than to go under the knife (literally).
Cambridge Analytica and the constant fearmongering about data collection
ultimately has very few immediate and direct impacts. The designers of
Canadian/French radiotherapy machines never had to dogfood their own product.
This on the other hand, has a very quick and immediate feedback loop. If one
were to graduate from building robots to building e.g. airliner control
systems, a bit of skin off the tip of the ear or scalp would pay for itself
several times over if you factor in the loss of an airliner.

[https://www.imgur.com/gallery/r2fW2o7](https://www.imgur.com/gallery/r2fW2o7)

~~~
vsskanth
I get your point, but in this case, that arm is operating on its own without
complete control by the user (I assume). Its not the same as playing with
something.

It can go very, very wrong if that arm has a bug and there's no force feedback
based cutoff.

~~~
sansnomme
Modern day razors are very safe and the worst that could happen is a clipped
ear or a scratched scalp. Messy yes but hardly deadly. Just remember to
restrict the movement state space of the arm so it can never be in front you
(don't want it near eyes).

------
thomzi12
Awesome! Some quick comments:

* What about non-human use cases, like shearing pets between seasons? If you can solve getting pets to stay still could be a possible initial use case. Seems easier to get traction!

* As pitched, this seems more like an add-on than standalone product. Where could this be an add-on? Airport bar? Airport massage parlor? You need people to get into the door, the haircut won't be it but it can be part of the experience!

* Would salons/barbers be interested in buying this device so that they can service more customers, i.e. increase customers/hour or a similar metric? Run some surveys/ask owners to find out!

* Youtube video for the next iteration of the product can be sharper ... see something like Paolo from Tokyo videos, etc. Editing matters. You want this idea to go viral!

~~~
dopeboy
Awesome questions & comments thomzi12.

1) Possibly. It's not something we've explored though I am told by many pet
owners that getting them to stay still is a challenging task.

2) I might disagree with you there; we're trying to create the barbershop of
the future. It will live in airports, malls, and offices.

3) Yes and we're starting those conversations.

4) I hear you. I personally care a lot about presentation and what you're
seeing now is the floor of our capabilities. It will only get better as we
grow.

~~~
ryanmercer
> we're trying to create the barbershop of the future

I think you are wholly out of touch with barbershops in most of the country.
They are social places. People go, sit for 15, 30, 60 minutes waiting for
their haircut talking to each other. In the past several years a lot of them
have gone back to the 'old timey' setup with the 'old timey' garb even. The
barbers don't just run some clippers over your head as fast as they can, they
take their time. Even if you want a #2 all over they're going to use scissors,
clippers and a straight razor. They're going to use warm lather to create
crisp, shaved, lines, they're going to talk to you, you're going to talk to
them, you're going to talk to other people sitting around, you might play a
game of chess or checkers with the person next to you while you wait.

Barber shops, for many decades, have been social hubs. Places for men to go
for an hour or two and shoot the shinola. Have you actually visited non-chain
barbershops? Have you talked to any barbers or stylists? People build
relationships with their clients, barbers and stylists have social media
presences even now where they show off their skills and highlight clients.

What you are trying to create is a way to save the military money when they
process people at basic training, which will probably actually cost them time
as a skilled barber can do a buzz cut comparable with what your machine will
do in a fraction of the time.

Even chain establishments, like Sport clips, sell you an _experience_. Every
employee is wearing referee garb, everything is sports themed, sports content
are on the televisions, the stores are decorated like locker rooms, hot towel,
neck massagers, scalp wash, beard/neck trimming, etc.

What you're trying to replace is people like you that don't seem to like
interacting with human beings and want everything as efficient as possible and
just want a buzz cut. Most people are not like this. You're going to have a
very tiny customer base, if your product can even legally be used (this stuff
is regulated on a state by state basis, requires licensing, requires certain
health standards, requires a human and varying amounts of training, zoning
comes into play for where you can set up shop etc).

I also offered you dozens of questions elsewhere in the thread, none of which
you addressed. There are a LOT of hurdles here.

I think you are in desperate need of actually talking to stylists/barbers,
visiting some barbershops and salons and doing some reading research.

[https://www.thefader.com/2017/10/23/black-barbershops-
photo-...](https://www.thefader.com/2017/10/23/black-barbershops-photo-essay-
interview)

[https://www.wnyc.org/story/fear-black-
barbershop/](https://www.wnyc.org/story/fear-black-barbershop/)

[https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/rediscovering-the-
ba...](https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/rediscovering-the-barbershop/)

[https://www.forbes.com/sites/bisnow/2017/07/06/barbershops-a...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/bisnow/2017/07/06/barbershops-
are-back-and-bucking-retail-trends/)

[https://www.ogleschool.edu/blog/resurgence-of-the-great-
amer...](https://www.ogleschool.edu/blog/resurgence-of-the-great-american-
barbershop/)

[https://business.mindbody.io/education/blog/barber-shops-
tre...](https://business.mindbody.io/education/blog/barber-shops-trend-will-
not-fade-away)

[https://nearsay.com/c/456502/306271/why-barbershops-have-
see...](https://nearsay.com/c/456502/306271/why-barbershops-have-seen-a-
resurgence-in-popularity)

[https://scandinaviantraveler.com/en/lifestyle/retro-
barbersh...](https://scandinaviantraveler.com/en/lifestyle/retro-barbershops-
are-making-a-trendy-comeback)

------
kingkawn
Wayne & Garth demo’d an early version of this concept decades ago:
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AioVDsXidh0](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AioVDsXidh0)

------
andbberger
Reminds me of this somewhat terrifying robotic sheep shearer from the 80s [1]

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZAh2zv7TMM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZAh2zv7TMM)

~~~
ryanmercer
Well, I'll be having nightmares tonight.

~~~
andbberger
Sorry about that.

------
hoare
This reminds me of the machine starred in the "Casper, the friendly ghost"
movie i watched as a kid. I hope you run more QA though. Would love to see
your 2nd Prototype. Keep up the good work!

------
sanj
The screen saying "CALIBRATED, BAD" is a little disconcerting.

~~~
dopeboy
Agreed. That's our system that keeps track of whether you stay still. It's a
little too sensitive and needs some tweaking.

------
ASalazarMX
How strong is this arm? Could it pinch and break the neck of the user?

~~~
dopeboy
Hi ASalazarMX - no it couldn't. We have software constraints around speed and
position. Additionally, there's hardware checks that shut down the arm if it
moves too fast and/or encounters too much pressure.

~~~
ASalazarMX
Thanks for answering. For a moment I let my imagination run wild and pictured
a spy hacking your barber to commit the perfect crime.

Edit: Since you mentioned it's an UR3, its payload is probably the same as the
UR3e (3 Kg), so no neck breaking strength. Maybe strangulation if the user
cooperates.

~~~
Max_Mustermann
> Maybe strangulation if the user cooperates.

Clearly another untapped business opportunity.

------
zoomablemind
Doesn't look scarry in the video at all. Smooth and careful.

Yet, since the time savings are part of the advertized convenience, I wonder
if a robot would be able to trim/shave as fast as a human stylist. The usual
neck fuzz job is 10 sec at most for even student barber.

Sure, you could save booking/wating time, but the actual service time may
still be bottlenecked by safety and precision requirements. So subjectively
this could feel as dreadful, unless you'd mix in some interaction to mask the
time flow.

Good luck!

------
bane
Also try the amazing flowbee
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowbee](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowbee)

------
tylerjwilk00
Cool concept. Spouses are good temporary workaround until this becomes
mainstream. They also have the benefit of being multifunctional which provides
a good ROI ;)

~~~
tehlike
Spouse is a weird proposal. Has a different roi, with oppt cost of two
potentially highly paid people

------
rookiemaverick
What’s about using laser for cutting hairs ? Not everyone’s heads surface is
even e.g. I have a type of pimple in my head . And to use blades is more
risky. There are laser treatment for hair removal. I think same can be used
for cutting the hairs with the help of few other tools. Also, it will be more
accurate, quicker, easier and safe to map the length of hair and then cut it
via using laser.

~~~
coupdejarnac
Do a quick experiment and report back: get a lighter and burn a few hairs off
your arm. Now, imagine that smell times 1000.

------
rukittenme
I can't imagine how many frantic "^C^C^C^C"'s there were. Still has a full
head of hair! Great job on the prototype.

------
defnmacro
Personally I think this is a fantastic idea, I always have an issue with
barbers getting wildly different hairstyles from the same specifications, a
few inches off top with scissors, 3 buzz on the sides, you'd be surprised the
variation that occurs from that simple specification.

------
martin-adams
Impressive work. It'll be fascinating to see how fast these innovations can
go. It does remind me of the Robot Tattoo Machine from a few years back.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnLEG3kWSko](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnLEG3kWSko)

------
robofanatic
With all due respect, Rube Goldberg's dream is coming true!

------
jansan
You should get an emergency stop button, one of those yellow boxes with a red
button. They are cheap and could prove useful in your case to prevent a bloody
massacre.

------
d-d
I used to be excited by new technology. Now I'm thinking we're just automating
ourselves into a far, far worse existence largely driven by greed.

------
spurgu
Slightly more sophisticated than this one:

[https://youtu.be/yQSh1MWIdVU?t=223](https://youtu.be/yQSh1MWIdVU?t=223)

------
austinhutch
When I lived in the bay area I always said the biggest hikes in cost of living
were the rent (obviously) and the haircuts (surprisingly!)

------
system2
Unless it sucks at the same time, it won't get the right length for any
section. Or something needs to pull the hair per section.

------
tabtab
Seems to me it would be hard to get insurance on such. If something goes
wrong, it could blind somebody, burn their face, etc.

------
memn0nis
This is great! I'd love to pop into a store to use something like this.
Looking forward to seeing the next iteration;

------
mitfahrener
Do you need to hold your head really still? What happens if you move your head
after scanning?

~~~
dopeboy
It doesn't matter if you move after the scan, so long as the orientation of
your head is the same, you're good. You do need to stay pretty still during
the cut and we have the screen + camera up front to assist you with that.

------
puranjay
Clippers might be fine, but it'll take a brave man to try this with a pair of
scissors

------
mgoetzke
Would rather have an ironing machine, but kudos to the work that already went
into this :)

------
frk1206
Awesome stuff! Amazing to see the progress and how you are taking this step by
step

------
nodesocket
This is shaving a neck, not cutting hair. Not even close in terms of
difficulty.

~~~
King-Aaron
Baby steps.

------
realbarack
Cool stuff! How long until straight razor is released? ;)

~~~
dopeboy
I see your smile but I thought I'd answer anyways :)

A while. We've had folks ask about it and we're going to stay away from it for
now for the obvious reasons. Close to 50% of all haircuts are clipper cuts so
we think there's a large enough market there.

------
schpaencoder
Please sit VERY still for a couple of minutes.

------
dthakur
Is the arm a UR3e? How much does it cost?

~~~
dopeboy
This is the not the 'e' edition. I think the 3e's cost around ~$24k. The
standard UR3 is discontinued as far as I know.

------
thrownaway954
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK7_VSpTyVY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK7_VSpTyVY)

Just saying

------
davidclarke_au
Patented yet?

------
ryanmercer
Nnnnnnnnnope, not letting a robot anywhere near my head with sharp stuff.

Have you thought about how you will get people comfortable with this idea?
Even with clippers, with a guard, you can still do some damage to someone's
skin (and, you know, giving them a horrendous looking haircut). I'd imagine
many people would be extremely wary of such a contraption.

>So we're building a robot that comes in kiosk form and lives in airports,
malls, and offices. You book an appointment, come in, get your cut, and go
about your day; all without talking to anyone.

How are you handling sanitation? Actually cleaning all the hair up? Water for
easier cutting (dry hair, curly hair, etc changing the moisture levels can
change the ease of cutting)? Washing hair that has product in it? Adding
product? Upselling and making a good chunk of your profit by selling
overpriced product?

What about the fact that this is all regulated at a state level in the United
States and most (if not all) require a cosmetology license to cut hair with
varying levels of education and hours required before.

What about other public health laws/requirements? Dropping a salon in a mall,
in a contained area, is one thing but dropping a kiosk in the middle of an
airport or mall is another.

What sort of system do you plan for when someone is unsatisfied with the
outcome? How do you plan to handle "no I don't like that, can you change it a
little"? What about the fact that human heads are not uniform or even
symmetrical? What about natural parts?

How does the buyer communicate they want their sidebrowns at this level, their
bangs at this level, keep/lose the widow's peak, etc?

What about people that don't want a bowl cut or a buzz cut?

What about someone that has lice? Open wounds? Isn't remotely clean? Will it
confuse excessively dry skin with lice and refuse service?

What happens when a pair of clippers snag on someone's hair, do they just sit
there waiting for a passerby to cut their hair so they can be freed? Do they
wait for mall security to tell them it's time to leave because the mall is
closing? Do they have to wait for the kiosk babysitter to come back from their
smoke break?

What if there is a power outage? Mechanical failure? Does the person leave
with only a percentage of their hair cut, is there a second system that can
resume, is there a battery backup, will the components most prone to failure
be able to be replaced in that session by the equipment to continue?

How do you clean the chair that gets sat in? The floor around it? Hair will
fall, regardless of a vacuum.

How will you minimize noise? Filter the exhaust? How often will the filter(s)
need serviced? What happens if there is a vacuum/suction failure and hair is
being left behind?

How well will the system identify black hair on someone with dark skin? Blonde
hair on someone with very light skin? Pink hair? Blue hair? Curly hair? What
if someone is balding considerably, how will it identify where to cut/not to
cut? What if someone has a beard, how will it know where to terminate? What if
they have bushy eyebrows? Will it confuse a several hundred dollar
wool/cashmere sweater with the person's hair? How will it handle hair that is
longer than a few inches?

~~~
ASalazarMX
Despite all your good points, this is perfect for people like me who just buzz
cut the same length every couple of months. No scissors or blades.

It looks terrifying if you think of it as a robot barber, but who knows? maybe
robot buzz cutters could even standardize hair fashion because of their
massive convenience.

~~~
Ohn0
I guess I can imagine this evolving, but seems very niche. How about start
with a nail painting bot?

~~~
ryanmercer
>How about start with a nail painting bot?

That's actually probably far more realistic as a viable product although it
would still require a human for trimming the nails, pushing the cuticles back
etc but would allow for much finer detail to be done.

I imagine sensors would be able to identify the nail much better too (both
optically and via a physical sensor).

\- Some small 'receptacle' that you place the finger it, it applies a very
modest amount of pressure to hold the digit still.

\- Optically scan the still digit to identify the nail

\- Some sort of stylus type device domes down and quickly probes the perimeter
to create a second data point of where cuticle and skin are

\- Nail is then painted with the color selected and any pattern option
selected

\- A small air hose near the application head/compartment is removing the
fumes from the immediate area

\- Paint is cured via UV quickly

\- Any additional features such as stones are then placed

You could do each digit individually or do all of the fingers of one hand at
once, then the thumb, then the other hand. It would be quicker, capable of
much finer detail, etc. You'd be able to have someone hammering out
manicures/cutting and then send people over to a row of machines to pick
exactly what they want from a screen or instantly load their preferred setting
from previous visits. Someone could even design what they want in an app
before hand, or purchase a special design from a community market place for a
modest fee.

This works great in a mall or airport because you can have minimal staff doing
the trim/cuticle push/roughing up which could be done in a minute or two and
then you kick people over the machines for the nail decoration, have little
applicators of polish remover available for any accidental skin painting,
something like a cotton swab or little sponge that is pre-moistened.

~~~
AareyBaba
Nail printing machines exist. [https://www.amazon.com/TUOSHI-NP10-Portable-
Printer-Support/...](https://www.amazon.com/TUOSHI-NP10-Portable-Printer-
Support/dp/B07H2VQ45N)

~~~
ryanmercer
That's printing, It mentions an ink cartridge in the Q&A, even with the UV
curing I imagine it doesn't last very and is probably incredibly thin. The one
customer image on there with examples... ooof they look like someone took
model decals and put them on off-center and crooked too.

Someone could definitely improve on that considerably with a machine that
actually paints the nails.

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paggle
The Suck-Cut cuts... as it sucks.

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marknadal
All I saw was a robot wielding a vibrating razor blade with an arm and terror
strike across my face.

Impressive chops, I must say, but the DOD will want to hire you sooner than
Uber for Barbers.

