Skin assessment using image fusion
AssigneeCanfield Scientific, Incorporated
InventorSachin V. Patwardhan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Apparatuses and methods are disclosed for assessing the texture of skin using images thereof. In exemplary embodiments, a texture map of an area of skin is generated from a combination of a standard white light image, a parallel-polarized image, and a cross-polarized image of the area of skin. The texture map is then flattened to remove the underlying curvature of the skin. A texture roughness metric is then generated based on the flattened texture map. An image of the texture map and the metric can be displayed to provide visual and alphanumeric representations of the texture of skin, thereby facilitating the comparison of baseline and follow-up images of the skin, such as those taken before and after treatment.
Claims20
An apparatus comprising:
- a storage device configured to store instructions;
- a processor configured to execute instructions stored in the storage device to:
- obtain a standard image of a skin area;
- obtain a parallel-polarized image of the skin area;
- obtain a cross-polarized image of the skin area;
- generate a texture map from a combination of the standard, parallel-polarized and cross-polarized images;
- generate at least one of a texture map image or a texture metric from the texture map;
- and
- cause the at least one of the texture map, the texture map image, or the texture metric to be displayed, stored, communicated, or processed;
- an illumination source, wherein the illumination source is configured to illuminate the skin area with unpolarized light or polarized light of a first polarization orientation;
- and
- an image capture device configured to capture an image without polarization or with polarization of a second polarization orientation,
- wherein the first and second polarization orientations are the same for capturing the parallel-polarized image of the skin area and mutually orthogonal for capturing the cross-polarized image of the skin area.
A method comprising:
- obtaining a standard image of a skin area;
- obtaining a parallel-polarized image of the skin area;
- obtaining a cross-polarized image of the skin area;
- generating a texture map from a combination of the standard, parallel-polarized and cross-polarized images;
- generating at least one of a texture map image or a texture metric from the texture map;
- and
- causing the at least one of the texture map, the texture map image, or the texture metric to be displayed, stored, communicated, or processed,
- wherein obtaining the standard, parallel-polarized and cross-polarized images of the skin area includes:
- illuminating the skin area with unpolarized light or polarized light of a first polarization orientation;
- and
- capturing an image without polarization or with polarization of a second polarization orientation,
- wherein the first and second polarization orientations are the same for capturing the parallel-polarized image of the skin area and mutually orthogonal for capturing the cross-polarized image of the skin area.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.