Makeup applicator tool
Shirley Wang
ABSTRACT
The aim of this project is to increase the autonomy of women with hand tremors by developing a tool that would enable the application of facial makeup. A behavior with complex psychological and social implications, the application of facial makeup increases the well being of women with diseases that cause tremors. We worked closely with several women diagnosed with Essential Tremor as well as used a electric muscle stimulator on ourselves to simulate shakiness. The result is a wall-mounted tool with a flexible tremor-absorbing handle.
BACKGROUND
Many people throughout the world experience body tremors and limited autonomy due to diseases such as Essential Tremor, Parkinson’s disease, Ataxia, and Multiple Sclerosis. These tremors— mostly found in the hands, head, body, and legs—physically inhibit people by making fine motor movements much more difficult, if not impossible. Emotionally, the frustration from not being able to do what was once an easy task takes a large toll on a person’s quality of life. We believe that increasing the ability to make the decisions of carrying out an activity by personal choice will also increase quality of life.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Our goal is to create a product that would help return the sense of self-autonomy despite physiological barriers. The application of makeup is a key ritual for many women, and the loss of this ability is debilitating enough that the emotional repercussions can spread to other activities. ADL’s have a significant impact on the well being of a person, and enabling women in this process would be incredibly impactful on their lives.
In a study on the quality of life for people with Essential Tremor, the results supported that psychological factors decreased the sense of wellbeing more than physical factors, and social phobias existed in 30% of patients (1). For a disease primarily classified as a movement disorder, this study shows that much of the decreased quality of life comes from the psychological depression of having a disability rather than the severity of tremors. Therefore, psychological symptoms have wide spreading ramifications in everyday life.
On a cultural level, makeup highlights women’s complex sociological interactions with other people and her feeling of self worth. Whether or not a woman chooses to wear makeup can feed into her idea of what constitutes into positive body image.
This work is most similar to three products: the Liftware spoon/fork, which enables people who have ET to eat with less impact from tremors, the Fluidic Cup Holder (2), which places dampening liquid between two concentric cups, and a medical feeding aid for patients with Ataxia (3), which attempts to isolate, restrict, and dampen vibrations from different directions. The first is a fully commercialized tool that has been shown to significantly improve people’s lives.
We found that nothing exists in the market that directly addresses the application of makeup with hand tremors. There are small makeup products that use various grips to enable more precise application, but these tools lack the qualities needed for larger movement caused by tremors.
For the rest of the paper, we will use eyeliner to represent makeup products and to eliminate confusion between makeup product and makeup application tool. However, it should remain clear that this product is designed to accommodate the application of other beauty products as well including lipstick, mascara, and nail polish.
METHODS/ APPROACH
We first performed an ethnographic photo survey of places where women apply eyeliner to immerse ourselves in the daily routines of women. Through image searches, we found that counter space is limited by bathroom design and/ or by the products that are placed on the counter.
Two options emerged from this survey: a hand held tool, which would be small and compact, or a wall-mounted tool, which would be attached to the mirror or wall, either permanently or semi-permanently mounted (via screws or suction cups).
In conjunction with the survey, we interviewed three women and email corresponded with seven women who have Essential Tremor. We used the International Essential Tremor Foundation’s network to help generate a participant pool and their database of articles and newsletter to learn background information of the disease. From these interviews and information on the disease, we found that there were three common strategies women used in applying eyeliner to accommodate for their tremors.
These three strategies are shown below:
Three strategies for applying makeup with hand tremors.
In most cases, women would also press their hand into their face to keep their hand steady.
From these findings, we validated our assumption that a tool which reduces tremors from the hand to eyeliner would be beneficial to people who apply makeup, since the adaptive strategies women use to apply makeup are time consuming and may not yield good results.
Because our tool was mechanical and relied on the apparent properties of materials to achieve tremor dampening, the interviews in which we learned about how women held makeup were integral to our design choices. These include the type of material we would use for dampening, the physical design and shape of the tool, and how the tool would live in the user’s bathroom or bedroom.
Our starting point was a concept consisting of a two concentric cups- the inner cup a makeup holder and the outer cup the handle. The two cups are connected with springs and a small damper to reduce movement from the hand to the makeup. Because the tool is held perpendicularly to the ground during makeup application, the stiffness of the springs and damper had to be high enough to hold the makeup in the center of the cup. However, then tremor absorption was lower. To circumvent this, we decided to try grounding the eyeliner tool to a wall.
Our second prototype consisted of a trapezoidal cup handle that holds the eyeliner so that displacement of the cup would be greatest where the hand is gripping it at the top, and smallest at the base. Springs would move the makeup applicator with larger gross arm movement.
Around this time, one interviewee invited us to present our progress to an ET support group. With this prototype, the handle was too large, requiring the user to change how she would apply makeup. Therefore, this concept did not meet our requirements.
Getting feedback on prototype.
Based on that testing, we decided to spend time understanding how women hold makeup through a series of hand studies. There is a certain kind of grip required that differs between holding a mascara wand, an eyeliner pencil, an eye shadow brush, and lipstick. Whatever tremor dampening system we designed had to accommodate these different grips for holding makeup.
The hand sketches helped us realize that rather than have tremor dampening occur right above the makeup (ex. the cup in the previous prototype enveloped the makeup), it could happen behind the makeup. With the tool grounded on the wall, the handle would be pushed/pulled depending on how a person would maneuver it and allows for various grips required to hold it.
We added a ball and socket joint as a bridge between the makeup and the tremor dampener. This enabled us to use the friction in the joint and allow for small arm movements.
RESULTS/RESOLUTION
We had three methods for testing our prototypes at different stages in addition to user testing at an Essential Tremor group meet up. We also simulated tremors on ourselves using an electric muscle stimulator, a Slendertone device, which although may have created a different type of tremor, still enabled us to see if the prototype was at all viable. Our third method was to send photos to our interviewees who provided feedback on the aesthetic of the model.
At its current stage, this prototype does not accommodate front to back movement of the hand. Our way around that is to add a short sleeve on the flexible handle that would not be attached to anything. The ball and socket joint, makeup, and flexible handle are attached to a very stiff hose, which enables larger arm movements. In addition, the appearance of the tool would also have to be redesigned to evoke better emotional appeal.
DISCUSSION/ CONCLUSION
The conclusion of the project is a fully realized product that is a few iterations away from fully accomplishing the goals stated but serves as a proof of concept. Next steps for this project include testing materials for the flexible handle and adjusting the ball and socket joint to dampen the right frequencies of tremor. It may be that the joint is redundant and the hose could replace it just as well.
Another addition to the tool would be a support for the user to rest her head on while applying eyeliner. During our research, we learned that while head tremors also are problematic for applying makeup and compared to hand tremors, are much harder to self-dampen when applying makeup. By using her chin to press down on a headrest support, a woman would be able to briefly suppress tremors from her head.
We believe that this tool would greatly increase independence of women who have hand tremors and want to apply makeup. It is our belief that the greatest barrier to independence is being told you can no longer do something you once were able to do. This tool would give users the option of choosing to apply makeup based on their own volition rather than by a physiological factor.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you to Stephen Stadelmeier and Cameron Riviere for your advice and support and Nigel Alcorn for help with prototyping. This research was funded by the Carnegie Mellon University Undergraduate Research Office and the Quality of Life and Technology Center.
References
Lorenz, D., Schweiger, D., Moises, H., and Deuschl, G. (2006). Quality of Life and Personality in Essential Tremor Patients. Movement Disorders, 21, 1114-1118
Fischer, M., Irlinger, F., Leuth, T.C. (2010). Passive Fluidic Cup Folder for Tremor Compensation. Proceedings of the 2010 3rd IEEE RAS & EMBS: International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics. Tokyo, Japan: Univeristy of Tokyo.
Broadhurst, M.J., Stammers, C.W. (1990). Mechanical Feeding Aids for Patients with Ataxia. Journal of Biomedical Engineering, 12.