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US 6,032,071 AGranted
Skin examination device
AssigneeNorbert Artner
InventorMichael Binder
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A device for optical examination of human skin and its pigmentation comprises a cylindrical housing in which are arranged an optical observation device and a vertical illumination device. Where it faces the skin the housing is delimited by a plate made of transparent plastics or glass, which is applied to a skin site to be examined without introducing an immersion fluid. Light polarization devices are situated between the illumination device and the transparent plate and between the transparent plate and the optical observation device, their degree of polarization being controlled or, optionally, their location being movable mechanically into or out of particular light beam paths.
Claims32
A device for optically examining human skin and its pigmentations, the device comprising:
- a cylindrical housing;
- a substantially planar transparent plate detachably applied to a skin site to be examined without introducing an immersion fluid, the transparent plate delimiting the housing from the skin site, the transparent plate being made of a transparent plastic or glass material;
- a vertical light illumination device disposed in the housing and radiating light directed to the skin site along an incident beam path;
- an optical observation device disposed in the housing and in the incident beam path, and including an optical enlarging device;
- a light-polarizing device disposed in a reflected beam path of light reflected from the skin at the skin site and arranged between the illumination device and the transparent plate, the light-polarizing device including a polarizer for polarizing the incident light beam directed to the skin site along the incident beam path and an analyzer for analyzing the reflected light beam in the reflected beam path from the skin at the skin site, the light-polarizing device being variably controllable to modify the type, degree, and angle of polarization;
- an optical image-recording device disposed in the housing;
- a hollow housing extension projecting from the housing and acting as a manipulating handle;
- and
- at least one regulating, switching and control element disposed outside of the hollow housing extension and coupled to the devices disposed in the housing by lines extending through the hollow housing extension.
6 more elements
A procedure for optically examining human skin comprising the steps of:
- applying a substantially planar transparent plate on the skin to stretch and smooth a skin site to be examined without introducing any immersion fluid;
- directing an incident light beam through the transparent plate to the skin site to illuminate the skin site which reflects a reflected light beam;
- providing a polarizer for polarizing the incident light beam and an analyzer for analyzing the reflected light beam;
- carrying out in combination polarization of the incident light beam and polarization analysis of the reflected light beam;
- controlling the polarizer and analyzer to modify the type, degree, and angle of polarization;
- separately carrying out polarization of the incident light beam without polarization analysis of the reflected light beam or polarization analysis of the reflected light beam without polarization of the incident light beam;
- and
- storing one or more images of the skin site generated by the reflected light beam.
5 more elements
A procedure for optically examining human skin comprising the steps of:
- applying a substantially planar transparent plate on the skin to stretch and smooth a skin site to be examined without introducing any immersion fluid;
- directing an incident light beam through the transparent plate to the skin site to illuminate the skin site which reflects a reflected light beam;
- carrying out in combination polarization of the incident light beam and polarization analysis of the reflected light beam;
- separately carrying out polarization of the incident light beam without polarization analysis of the reflected light beam or polarization analysis of the reflected light beam without polarization of the incident light beam;
- and
- storing one or more images of the skin site generated by the reflected light beam;
- the procedure further comprising the steps of processing an image of the skin site:
- (a) separating signals or data of a pigmented lesion from signals or data of the skin surrounding the lesion of the image by multi-phase segmentation or local threshold value formation;
- (b) reducing the image to n levels of relative grey values, with level n representing healthy skin and level 1 representing the darkest site of observed lesion of the skin site in the image, and forming an exact outline image of the lesion;
- (c) masking the lesion;
- (d) forming a first binary image of the lesion and determining parameters of the lesion including an area, circumferential dimension, symmetry, fractal dimension or boundary of a margin, and an aspect ratio;
- (e) assessing the margin of the lesion by forming a second binary image from grey stages n-1, n-2, and (n-1)+(n-2) and analyzing the image with regard to relationship of areas of the first and second binary images to each other and circumferential dimension and fractal dimension of the second binary image;
- (f) assessing pigmentation by sequential measurement of dark portions of the image;
- (g) assessing color and color distribution by transfer of the image from a red-green-blue color region to a hue-saturation intensity color region and display coloration and variability of objects by a per definitionem black-and-white image;
- (h) evaluating the reduced data of the image and comparing the reduced data with known data for lesions with known and classified diagnoses using multi-variate procedures employing a neuronal network having at least 100 images;
- and
- (i) classifying the image into one of a plurality of categories of a diagnostic key having several levels that include (1) a non-suspicious lesion, (2) a suspicious lesion, and (3) probably a malignant lesion, and reporting the category detected.
14 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.