System and Method for Determining the Position of a Hair Tail on a Body Surface
AssigneeRestoration Robotics, Inc.
InventorHui Zhang
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
System and method are provided for determining hair tail positions. An image containing hair which is received from an image acquisition device is processed to find a coarse hair tail position. The coarse hair tail position is refined through further processing. The refined hair tail position may be used for accurate positioning, for example, of hair transplantation tools in various hair transplantation applications.
Claims27
A method for determining a position of a hair tail on a body surface, comprising:
- using a processor to perform one or more of the following steps:
- determining a contour of a hair from an image of a body surface taken by an imaging device;
- determining a longitudinal axis of the hair;
- determining intersection points of the longitudinal axis of the hair and the contour of the hair, wherein one of the intersection points is associated with a coarse position of a hair tail of the hair on the body surface;
- generating an intensity profile of the image along the longitudinal axis of the hair;
- and
- refining the coarse position of the hair tail based on at least the intensity profile of the image.
A method for improving position of a hair harvesting tool relative to a hair graft to be harvested, comprising:
- determining a contour of a hair of a hair graft from an image of a body surface taken by an imaging device;
- determining a longitudinal axis of the hair;
- determining intersection points of said longitudinal axis of the hair and said contour of the hair, wherein one of the intersection points is associated with a coarse position of a hair tail of the hair on the body surface;
- generating an intensity profile of the image of the hair along the longitudinal axis of the hair;
- refining the coarse position of the hair tail based on at least the intensity profile of the image;
- and
- positioning a hair harvesting tool relative to the hair graft based on the refined position of the hair tail of the hair of the hair graft.
A system for determining a position of a hair tail on a body surface, comprising:
- a receiver configured to receive an image of a hair on a body surface;
- and
- a processor configured to execute instructions for:
- refining a coarse position of a hair tail of the hair, wherein the coarse position is refined based on at least an intensity profile of the image of the hair.
An image processor comprising one or more modules for executing operations on images, the one or more modules comprising instructions for:
- determining a contour of a hair from an image of a body surface taken by an imaging device;
- determining a longitudinal axis of the hair;
- determining intersection points of the longitudinal axis of the hair and the contour of the hair, wherein one of the intersection points is associated with a coarse position of a hair tail of the hair on the body surface;
- generating an intensity profile of the image along the longitudinal axis of the hair;
- and
- refining the coarse position of the hair tail based on at least the intensity profile of the image.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.