About

HairwareKatiaVega Katia Vega is a Beauty Tech Designer. Inspired by invisible computing, empowering human capabilities and magic, she proposes novel ways of interacting with the world. Her invention is called Beauty Technology, a wearable computing subfield that uses the body’s surface as interactive platform by integrating technology into beauty products applied directly to one’s skin, fingernails and hair. Conductive Makeup, Tech Nails, FX e-makeup and Hairware are Beauty Technologies. Currently, she joined the Responsive Environments Group at MIT Media Lab as a Postdoctoral Associate. She was a Postdoctoral Fellow at PUC-Rio (Brazil). She got her PhD and master degrees in Computer Science at same university under the supervision of Prof. Hugo Fuks. She was a Research Assistant in the Wearables Lab at HKBU (Hong Kong). Her undergraduate studies were done in Computer Science at UNMSM (Peru). Co-Founder of Soluciones Racionales (IBM Business Partner - Peru). Her currently research areas are beauty technology, wearable computers, HCI.

What is Beauty Technology?

Awards

Exhibitions and Demos

Press Coverage

Facebook Fan Page

Projects

Publications

Hairware: The Conscious Use of Unconscious Auto-contact Behaviors

, IUI 2015

Beauty Technology is a wearable computing paradigm that uses the body’s surface as an interactive platform by integrating technology into beauty products applied directly to one’s skin, fingernails and hair. Hairware is a Beauty Technology Prototype that connects chemically metalized hair extensions to a microcontroller turning it into an input device for triggering different objects.… Continue reading →

[best paper award] FX e-Makeup for Muscle Based Interaction

, HCII 2014

Our aim with Beauty Technology is to transform our body in an interactive platform by hiding technology into beauty products for creating muscle based interfaces that don’t give the wearer a cyborg look. FX e-makeup is a Beauty Technology prototype that applies FX makeup materials embedded with electronics for sensing the face’s muscles. This work… Continue reading →

Beauty Technology: Body Surface Computing

, IEEE Computer

As wearable technology assumes an increasingly important function in daily life, sensors and other electronic devices applied directly to the skin, in forms like artificial nails and makeup, might further revolutionize human experience.   Katia Vega, Hugo Fuks, “Beauty Technology: Body Surface Computing,” Computer, vol. 47, no. 4, pp. 71-75, Apr. 2014, doi:10.1109/MC.2014.81   Read more: http://www.computer.org/csdl/mags/co/2014/04/mco2014040071-abs.html

Beauty tech nails: interactive technology at your fingertips

, TEI 2014

Looking for wearables that are fashionable, smart and augment human interaction, we introduce the term Beauty Technology as an emergent field in Wearable Computing. It is an on-body computing approach that turns non-invasive, wireless and without power required electromagnetic devices into beauty products for interacting with different surfaces and devices. This paper describes the materials… Continue reading →

[2nd best paper] Uma Abordagem Sistemática de Prototipação Colaborativa para a Criação de Tangíveis

, SBSC 2013

Este artigo apresenta uma abordagem sistemática de prototipação colaborativa para a criação de tangíveis. Durante quatro períodos letivos, esta abordagem foi aplicada em uma disciplina para calouros de Engenharia, na qual os alunos trabalharam em grupos no desenvolvimento de tangíveis para um jogo pré-definido, resultando em um total de 22 protótipos de alta fidelidade. Os… Continue reading →

Beauty Technology : Muscle based Computing Interaction

, ITS 2013

Wearable Computing had changed the way individuals interact with computers, intertwining natural capabilities of the human body with processing apparatus. But most of this technology had been designed just for clothing or accessories and it is still flat and rigid, giving the wearer a cyborg look. Beauty Technology, based on electromagnetic devices that are embedded… Continue reading →

Beauty Technology as an Interactive Computing Platform

, ITS 2013

Just blink and levitate objects, just move your fingernails and open the door. Chemically metalized eyelashes, RFID nails and conductive makeup are some examples of Beauty Technology products, an emergent field in Wearable Computers. Beauty Technology embedded electromagnetic devices into non-invasive beauty products that could be attached to the human body for interacting with different… Continue reading →

Empowering Electronic Divas through Beauty Technology

, HCI 2013

The evolution of Wearable Computers is making it possible for wearers to move and interact freely with the world with nearly invisible technology embedded into clothing. Our aim is to create technology that is not just in clothing but on the skin surface as removable and hidden electronics. In this paper, we introduce the term… Continue reading →

Future Fashion – At the Interface

, HCI 2013

Imagining the future, we create sci-fi predictions visualized through telematic imagery, involving stage sets and costumes. Looking back at sci-fi’s imagination we find it depicts the ideologies of the period in history when it was created far more accurately than it manages to predict future materials or functions. This article focuses on the body, but… Continue reading →

Blinklifier: A Case Study for Prototyping Wearable Computers in Technology and Visual Arts

, HCI 2013

The Cybernetic Serendipity exhibition in 1968 [1] and the Computer in Art book in 1971[2] represent some remarkable initial approaches in collaborative art-technology projects. Over the years, projects have evolved through thinking influenced by other areas such as psychology, sociology and philosophy. Much of art theory and practice is exploratory and its outcomes may be… Continue reading →

Collaborative Museums: An Approach to Co-Design

, CSCW 2012

This paper describes a systemic approach to co-design of collaborative museums, using ethnography, co-creation workshops and fast prototyping, amongst other Social Science and Human Centered Design methods. Focused on the creation of immersive and collaborative museum experiences, it provides a rationale for involving carefully selected multidisciplinary teams and users in the entire design cycle, and… Continue reading →

xAgent: Arquitetura para Colaboracao em Ambientes Cross-Reality

, SBSC 2011

Este artigo apresentada a arquitetura xAgent, cuja finalidade é o desenvolvimento de ambientes cross-reality colaborativos. xAgent se baseia em um sistema multiagentes no qual a comunicação entre os agentes se restringe a ocorrência de eventos no mundo real e virtual. São apresentados dois protótipos de aplicações, xGroupware e Ubilife, que ilustram a implementação da arquitetura… Continue reading →

xGroupware: Collaboration in Cross-Reality using Agents

, Cross reality

This paper presents xGroupware, a cross-reality application to support distance group work, in which some activities related to the coordination of meetings are systematized. xGroupware was developed with a Multiagent System-based architecture that integrates different technologies to enable message exchanges between users in the real and virtual worlds through the use of wearable computers. Vega,… Continue reading →

Co-designing Collaborative Museums using Ethnography and Co-creation Workshops

, Cross reality

The paper presents a human centered approach to co-design of groupware and socialware for collaborative museums, using ethnography, co-creation workshops and Blank Model Prototyping. It discusses the concepts and processes of human centered design, participatory design, ethnography, concept generation and iterative prototyping – pointing their value to the support of group systems design, in comparison… Continue reading →

xGroupware: Colaboração em Ambientes Cross-Reality com Agentes

, Cross reality

This paper presents xGroupware, a cross-reality meetingware that coordinates some activities to support remote workgroup. xGroupware was developed based on a multiagent system architecture that integrates different technologies for enabling message exchange between virtual and real worlds users using wearable computers. Vega, K.; Cardador, D.; Fuks, H.; Lucena, C.J.P.   Anais do XIII Symposium on… Continue reading →

Testes de Usabilidade em TREG: avaliando um jogo de treinamento no Second Life

, Virtual Worlds

TREG is a training game which simulates various activities in software requirements workshop technique based on the book “Requirements by Collaboration”. It was developed in Second Life, a virtual world that gives the possibility to create an immersive collaborative educational experience. This study evaluated TREG using the usability metrics for games: interface, game mechanisms and… Continue reading →

TREG: A game for training in Requirements Engineering

, Virtual Worlds

TREG is a game for training in Requirements Engineering, specifically in the Workshops technique. It was created in Second Life using its building and scripting possibilities. This works presents an exploration in the use of a prototyping process and techniques for developing the game. The prototyping process of the book “Effective Prototyping for Software Makers”… Continue reading →

Enacting Collaboration via Storytelling in Second Life

, Virtual Worlds

This work presents a collaborative educational game,Time2Play, developed in Second Life, which allows t he creation ofstories in a collaborative fashion, offering a new form of expression in education. This game is projected for children from7 to 12 years old,enabling them to express their creativity and imagination by creating andenacting stories of their own. The… Continue reading →

Training in Requirements by Collaboration: Branching Stories in Second Life

, Virtual Worlds

Training by playing is believed to be an effective strategy for learning. Training games combine educational and technological techniques that help learners to get involved, collaborate and learn in a practical and interactive way.Collaboration is inherent to software requirements elicitation which involves customers, users and developers to achieve an overall goal. In this article, a… Continue reading →

Contact

  • Katia Vega

  • Address:
    Departamento de Informática, PUC-Rio
  • R. Marquês de São Vicente, 225 - Gávea, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • Phone:
    #
  • 5521 969041744