A new robot called Clockwork, is the world's first autonomous robot for manicures

A new manicure robot called Clockwork is the world's first robot manicure company. Using an autonomous robot for manicures offers a quicker, cheaper, hassle-free way to get your nails done. The machine captures a series of photos of the user's hand with built-in AI and 3D cameras, so it can build a multi-dimensional map. The artificial intelligence in the machine then uses that map to figure out where it needs to put the nail polish. This robotic experience wasn't devoid of human contact. Ideally, Clockwork wants other businesses to lease or buy its manicure machines.

Manicure robots:

Clockwork is formerly known as Marionette AI when it first formed as a beauty tech company in 2017. The Clockwork machine provides a no-frills paint job that doesn't include nail clipping, cuticle removal, filing, or hand massages. When the customer arrives, they choose a nail polish color and place the polish cartridge into the Clockwork robot, which looks like a big purple box.

The company keeps collecting camera footage of your fingernails for about 24 hours, but that's to train and improve the machine-learning algorithm. While Clockwork's AI system is unique and innovative, it will never replace the abilities of a trained professional. AI can identify edges with 0.3mm accuracy and tells the robot what is skin and what is a nail. For instance, a robot can't taper the sidewalls of nails, prep the nail plate, or provide detailed nail art.

Clockwork says the machines are not meant to replace full-service nail salons. They don't intend to eliminate jobs or push workers out of their livelihood. Sure, freeing all those workers up from that grueling environment would be great. But for a robot to really help, they'd need a plausible new career to do instead. Each day Clockwork engineers overview what mistakes and issues came up from the lab appointments.