Determining a water or lipid level of skin
AssigneeKoninklijke Philips N.V.
InventorsBabu Varghese, Wouter Hendrik Cornelis Spoorendonk, Walter Hermans, Marco Baragona
Life of this patent
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Abstract
There is provided a system (100) and method for determining a water or lipid level of skin. The system (100) comprises at least two electrodes (108) suitable for contacting skin, and a signal generator (106) configured to generate an electrical signal at a frequency across the at least two electrodes (108). The system (100) is configured to measure a permittivity between the at least two electrodes (108). The system (100) is further configured to determine a water or lipid level of skin based on the measured permittivity and the frequency of the electrical signal.
Claims9
A system for determining a water or lipid level of skin, the system comprising:
- at least two electrodes suitable for contacting skin;
- and
- a signal generator configured to generate an electrical signal across the at least two electrodes at a first frequency in a first frequency range and at a second frequency in a second frequency range, wherein the second frequency range is different from the first frequency range,
- a permittivity measurement device for measuring a permittivity of skin between the at least two electrodes, and
- a processor for processing an output of the permittivity measurement device, wherein the system is configured to:
- measure a plurality of permittivity measurements at a plurality of frequencies that comprise the first and second frequencies between the at least two electrodes, the permittivity measurements at the first frequency being sensitive to and depending more on the water level than on the lipid level, and the permittivity measurements at the second frequency being sensitive to and depending more on the lipid level than on the water level;
- compare a measured permittivity of the plurality of permittivity measurements to one or more predefined profiles describing the manner in which skin permittivity varies with frequency;
- determine the water level of skin based on a comparison of the measured permittivity when the frequency of the electrical signal is the first frequency to a corresponding profile of the one or more predefined profiles, and
- determine the lipid level of skin based on another comparison of the measured permittivity when the frequency of the electrical signal is the second frequency to another corresponding profile of the one or more predefined profiles.
A method of operating a system to determine a water or lipid level of skin, the system comprising at least two electrodes suitable for contacting skin, aha signal generator configured to generate an electrical signal across the at least two electrodes at a first frequency in a first frequency range and at a second frequency in a second frequency range, wherein the second frequency range is different from the first frequency range, a permittivity measurement device for measuring a permittivity of skin between the at least two electrodes, and a processor for processing an output of the permittivity measurement device, the method comprising:
- generating the electrical signal across the at least two electrodes at the first frequency in the first frequency range and at the second frequency in the second frequency range;
- measuring a plurality of permittivity measurements at a plurality of frequencies that comprise the first and second frequencies between the at least two electrodes, the permittivity measurements at the first frequency being sensitive to and depending more on the water level than on the lipid level, and the permittivity measurements at the second frequency being sensitive to and depending more on the lipid level than on the water level;
- comparing a measured permittivity of the plurality of permittivity measurements to one or more predefined profiles describing the manner in which skin permittivity varies with frequency;
- determining the water level of skin based on a comparison of the measured permittivity when the frequency of the electrical signal is the first frequency to a corresponding profile of the one or more predefined profiles, and
- determining the lipid level of skin based on another comparison of the measured permittivity when the frequency of the electrical signal is the second frequency to another corresponding profile of the one or more predefined profiles.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.