San Francisco startup Clockwork has developed a manicure robot that autonomously paints nails.

The robot, which has painted customer nails in pop-up locations in San Francisco, uses structured light 3D scanners for detecting the shape of a customer’s fingernails.

Likewise, artificial intelligence (AI) models are used to ensure that the nails are painted precisely. Reportedly, the manicure robot can identify nail edges with 0.3 mm accuracy. The AI model also directs the robot’s cartridge used to paint the nails.

Source: Clockwork

According to Clockwork, the customer’s hand is initially photographed by the system and the robot then uses CUDA — which is a parallel computing platform and application programming interface model developed by Nvidia — for the 3D point cloud reconstruction of the fingernail in just under 1 second.

For now, the $8 manicure does not include cutting, buffing or shaping of the fingernails as is standard with traditional manicures. However, Clockwork suggests that the service is a pandemic-friendly one by limiting contact with others and the company plans to deploy the robot in offices, apartment buildings and retail stores.

To see how the manicure robot works, watch the accompanying video that appears courtesy of Clockwork.