New hair-controlled smartphone technology comes with a twist

Why use your fingers to control your smartphone when you can just use your hair?

The Hairware technology allows you to connect your smartphone to your hair and allows you to manipulate the technology through your locks.

Katia Vega, founder of Beauty Technology, has created a set of extensions that blend in with a person's natural colour, and allows them to stroke their hair in order to send text messages or take selfies by twirling their hair.

Ms Vega said the technology is primarily aimed at women, although she is currently working on one that allows men to do something similar by controlling their beards.

She added that it can also be used as a security feature – meaning that if someone is in a tricky situation, they can discreetly send pre-programmed text messages or reveal their destination.
She said: "Hairware acts as a capacitive touch sensor that detects touch variations on hair and uses machine learning algorithms in order to recognise user’s intention. Artificial hair extensions were chemically metalised for acquiring electrical conductivity and also keeping a natural coloration. We added layers of non- conductive hair extensions that are added for isolating the hair from the skin.

“Also, these layers improved the capacitor sensor values. Each time the user touch the top, middle or tip, the capacitor sensor differentiates these values."

The way it works is the extensions have been "chemically metalised", so when a person touches the strands a circuit is completed and a signal is sent via a Bluetooth radio in a hair clip to a smartphone.

The technology can also react, depending upon how many times someone touches their locks. 

For example, running your fingers through your hair once could open an app, while performing the same hand movement again would activate a different program.