Health·Video

Colour-changing marker alerts users to reapply sunscreen

A special ink may one day help protect you from sunburn, say students at the University of Waterloo who still need to tweak the formula and prove its safety to regulators.

Watch a demonstration of the prototype

Sunscreen alert

10 years ago
Duration 1:39
CBC's Kim Brunhuber gets a demo of sunburn-saving ink that alerts you when the sunscreen needs replenishing

A special ink may one day help protect you from sunburn, say students at the University of Waterloo who still need to tweak the formula and prove its safety to regulators.

The prototype invention is a marker with ink that is designed to change colour to indicate when to reapply sunscreen.

Earlier genetic discoveries in melanoma related to skin pigmentation and moles. (Mary Godleski/Associated Press)

The nanotechnology engineers were fed up with getting sunburned. After checking with their professors, they started a company called Suncayr, which this week was one of the international runners-up in the 2014 James Dyson Award for design.

Watch CBC-TV's Kim Brunhuber get a demonstration of how the product works before and after exposure to UV light.