Does this wrinkle app represent the advent of deep learning in beauty?

The app is called RYNKL and was developed by Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov and his team of researchers, then launched by creating a crowdfunding campaign from Kickstart.

To date the campaign has 96 backers and has raised over US$12,000.

What the app does​

In a nutshell the app can be downloaded to a smart phone, then the user loads up the information about the anti-wrinkle products they are using, as well as regularly updated facial photos to analyse the effectiveness of the treatment on any existing wrinkles.

The technology taps into several significant trends in the industry, including growing interest in more personalised products, at-home beauty devices and the emerging interest in devices and technology that help to cultivate deep learning.

But perhaps it is deep learning that is the most significant, as it underlines the pinnacle of consumer engagement and evaluation, while also bringing science that has previously been only found in labs.

From data analytics to deep learning​

Dr. Zhavoronkov heads up Insilico Medicine, a big data analytics company that applies the technology to deep learning methods to biomarkers used in age-related diseases.

He is also the co-founder of Youth Laboratories, the company behind the development of the RYNKL app, which is marketed as a tool for evaluating the effectiveness of various anti-aging interventions by analysing skin for the number of wrinkles and their depth.\

Previously Youth Laboratories was the mastermind behind the Beauty.AI app, which was created as a comparison tool to assess and compare photos of individuals. The app was marketed as the first ever robot jury to judge human beauty.

Moving away from animal and human testing​

"One of my goals in life is to minimize unnecessary animal testing in areas, where computer simulations can be even more relevant to humans,”​ said Zhavoronkov.

“Serendipitously, some of our approaches find surprising new applications in the beauty industry, which has moved away from human testing and is moving towards personalizing cosmetics and beauty products.”​

The research team at Insilico Medicine is about present its findings at the Innocos Beauty Innovation Summit, in Vienna, Austria, 9 – 10 July.

The presentation will be based on a paper that was recently published in the peer review journal Aging, titled: "Deep biomarkers of human aging: Application of deep neural networks to biomarker development​"