Apply HN: Hairme – Programmable Haircuts for Men

If this is serious, the first part sounds reasonable to do, matching face to hair styles.

Actually cutting hair I don't think one can do cheap enough, even if the only hairstyle it can do is a bowl cut. The human head is not uniform, and the actual surface is obscured so you have to find where it is by physical touch, which is not easy for a robot. You might be able to build a prototype for a few million, but the production units I can't see being done for less than $50k (you could spend crazy amounts in R&D to get it lower, but I doubt one can drive it down to less than $10k).

Main killer is the number of degrees of freedom the robot would need to cut the hair and the sensitivity in movement so it doesn't injure someone. If someone figured out how to do that, they could make boatloads of money applying it to other problems (eg: non-fun nursing tasks, like replacing bedpans or washing patents of which there is a endless list of complications stemming from them not getting done often enough).

Robot with scissors and razor blade, what could go wrong?

Ha. This was probably the funniest one!

Perhaps 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?

Other 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.

Thanks 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.

Yeah. You could get like 40 vacuum haircutters and mount them helmet style. 30 second haircut.

https://youtu.be/EMvnu2XATqg?t=2m4s

If I may be frank and please understand I am not trying to be rude .... use your genius ( building such robot requires some sort of genius ) to solve a real problem that will have an impact. If getting a haircut is a problem for you....shave your head, a $10 dollar rechargeable machine can help you do that and can last a lifetime.

Though, I am wondering what else this technology can be used for. Perhaps the only way to know is to build it.

Building 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.

Do you or any cofounders have experience working in the hair-cutting industry? What research have you done into what it takes to make a good haircut?

Hair 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.

As 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.

Prior art: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lgluqEiQow

take my money already.