It’s no secret that too much exposure to ultraviolet light can do serious damage to your skin — and even cause skin cancer. To help reduce such exposure, personal care company L’Oréal has announced a small wearable sensor, called the La Roche-Posay My Skin Track UV sensor, that’s aimed at tracking your exposure to UV light, which could seriously help users improve the health of their skin.
There are a number of things that make this sensor highly useful. For starters, the sensor was built with Apple users in mind — it integrates with Apple’s HealthKit, meaning you can track how much UV light you’re exposed to straight from the Apple Health app. On top of that, it uses NFC to connect to your iPhone — not Bluetooth. What that means is that it doesn’t have a battery that needs to be charged. L’Oréal also has an accompanying app for the device, which can give you tips on how to keep your UV light exposure at a healthy level.
This isn’t the first time L’Oréal has shown off its UV-tracking tech. The sensor was developed by L’Oréal’s Technology Incubator, which introduced a prototype of the device, called the UV Sense, last year. The UV Sense attached the to the wearer’s fingernail instead of clipping to a shirt as the new sensor does. Before that, it first showed off the tech as a device that can attach to your skin.
The sensor itself actually measures UVA radiation, which is a type of radiation that penetrates deep into your skin and can cause aging and wrinkling. As a report from Wired notes, however, the sensor can use the information about UVA radiation to track UVB exposure too. Both UVA and UVB exposure are thought to contribute to skin cancer, but UVB seems to have a bigger impact, as it also causes your skin to burn.
The sensor itself costs $59.95 and is available in the U.S. exclusively at Apple stores or on the Apple website. Thankfully, Android users don’t need to miss out — while the device is being sold through Apple, it still works with an Android device through the accompanying Android app, though you won’t be able to integrate the collected data with Apple’s HealthKit.
