System and method for creation of topical agents with improved image capture

Abstract

A method is described including displaying a user's body portion image on an optical display of a device employed by the user. The device may include an image sensor and the body portion image may be sensed by the sensor. The method includes determining whether a position of the body portion image relative to the sensor is acceptable to allow for recording of the body portion image; determining whether a lighting environment associated with the sensor is acceptable to allow for recording of the body portion image; recording the image using the sensor to provide a recorded image having image data; processing the recorded image to determine lighting model data associated with the lighting environment; and determining reflectance and color characteristics associated with the body portion based on the recorded image and the lighting model data. In one embodiment the optical display has an illuminant and when the lighting environment is not acceptable for recording, the method instructs the user to modify the lighting environment so that illumination of the body portion is less than about 2% of the illumination provided by the illuminant, illuminates the body portion with constant white light using the illuminant and determines whether the illuminated body portion is positioned relative to the sensor to allow for recording of the body portion image by displaying an outline of the body portion on the optical display to position the body portion in view of the sensor. Processing of the image in this case may include direct computation to determine the lighting model.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.