L’Oréal Awarded New Patents for Air Quality, UV Measurement Technology Applications

L'Oréal this week has been awarded patents related to technologies that measure environmental aggressors that can play a role in skin health. David B. Kosecoff was named in both patents, which had initial filing dates in 2020.

In US Patent No. 11,790,750 B2, L’Oréal details a method for measuring air quality to determine a user's exposure to pollution. The detector device is attached to a cosmetic product.

The method entails sensing environmental conditions by a detector device; transmitting the environmental conditions data from the detector device to a smart device; alerting the user about personal pollutant exposure by the smart device; and prompting the user, by the smart device, to apply a cosmetic product when the user's personal pollutant exposure reaches a pre-determined threshold.  

This patent (11,790,750 B2) was filed on Sep. 30, 2020.

In a second patent issued this week, L’Oréal details a senor for measuring UV intensity that measures visible light intensity using common, inexpensive ambient light sensors or photodiodes, according to the patent file published by the USPTO.

In US Patent No. 11,788,886 B2, L’Oréal, details a UV sensor, comprising a lens that allows light including visible and UV light to enter the UV sensor. After the lens, a UV pass filter directs the UV light to a UV phosphor material, which then fluoresces visible light in proportion to the UV light from the UV pass filter. After the UV phosphor material, a visible light sensing device measures the visible light fluorescing from the UV phosphor material to determine an amount of the UV light entering the UV sensor.

This patent (11,788,886 B2) was filed on Dec. 9, 2020.

The patent states: “Currently, there are various UV sensors that can be worn on a person for measuring UV exposure. However, current sensors for measuring UV light intensity require specialized, expensive photodiodes.” It continues: “In order to reduce material cost of a UV sensor product, an ambient light sensor can be used in conjunction with an optical medium that converts UV light into visible light. The visible light is emitted in proportion to the UV light. Therefore, by measuring the visible light emitted by the optical material, the intensity of UV can be calculated.”

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