Skin spot evaluation apparatus, skin spot evaluation method and program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11317851-B2
Application number	US-201515522880-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 11, 2015
Priority date	Nov 19, 2014
Publication date	May 3, 2022
Grant date	May 3, 2022

Abstract

To appropriately evaluate skin spots by grasping a quality (characteristic) of the skin spots. A skin spot evaluation apparatus includes an area extracting unit that extracts skin spot areas corresponding to skin spots from a skin image obtained by photographing a skin of a subject; and an evaluation unit that analyzes, based on the skin spot areas extracted by the area extracting unit, at least one of the number of the skin spots, dimension of each of the skin spots and density of each of the skin spots, and generates data obtained by quantifying characteristic of the skin spots of the skin image using the analyzed result.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A skin spot evaluation apparatus comprising:
a memory; and
a processor coupled to the memory, wherein
the processor is configured
to generate pigment images indicative of distribution of a pigment component from skin images obtained by photographing skins of a plurality of subjects,
to apply bandpass filtering to the pigment images to remove low-frequency components therefrom to produce filtered pigment images,
to binarize the filtered pigment images based on concentration of the pigment component to produce binarized pigment images,
to apply a median filter to the binarized pigment images to remove noise therefrom to produce noise-removed binary pigment images that includes pixels having a low pigment value and pixels having a high pigment value,
to extract groups of combined pixels from the noise-removed binary pigment images by connecting together only contiguous pixels among the pixels having the high pigment value in the noise-removed binary pigment images that includes the pixels having the low pigment value and the pixels having the high pigment value,
to label the groups of combined pixels as skin spot areas, and remove areas whose dimension is less than or equal to a predetermined dimension from the skin spot areas to retain, as labeled skin spot areas, all areas whose dimension is greater than the predetermined dimension among the skin spot areas,
to generate a screen in which the skin spot areas labeled by the processor are displayed,
to obtain and analyze a number of the skin spots in the labeled skin spot areas, dimension of each of the skin spots and density of each of the skin spots based on melanin amounts for each generation of the plurality of subjects, and
to generate data obtained by quantifying a change over time of a characteristic of the skin spots of the plurality of skin images using an analyzed result,

wherein the processor is configured
to display the labeled skin spots by different colors based on predetermined dimension or diameter of each of the skin spot areas, the colors overlapping the skin spots on a skin image of a subject of the plurality of subjects, and
to display a first graph indicating the change over time of the characteristic of the skin spots in accordance with ages of the plurality of subjects, using the number of skin spots in the labeled skin spot areas, dimension of each of the skin spots and density of each of the skin spots, and

wherein a second graph is generated by plotting dimension of each of the skin spots and breaking down each generation age group on a per subject age basis.

2. The skin spot evaluation apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to extract the skin spot areas based on values of a melanin component obtained by analyzing the skin image.

3. The skin spot evaluation apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to display a distribution graph of the skin spot areas labeled by the processor for each dimension or each diameter.

4. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program for causing a computer to function as a skin spot evaluation apparatus comprising:
a memory; and
a processor coupled to the memory, wherein
the processor is configured
to generate pigment images indicative of distribution of a pigment component from skin images obtained by photographing skins of a plurality of subjects,
to apply bandpass filtering to the pigment images to remove low-frequency components therefrom to produce filtered pigment images,
to binarize the filtered pigment images based on concentration of the pigment component to produce binarized pigment images,
to apply a median filter to the binarized pigment images to remove noise therefrom to produce noise-removed binary pigment images that includes pixels having a low pigment value and pixels having a high pigment value,
to extract groups of combined pixels from the noise-removed binary pigment images by connecting together only contiguous pixels among the pixels having the high pigment value in the noise-removed binary pigment images that includes the pixels having the low pigment value and the pixels having the high pigment value,
to label the groups of combined pixels as skin spot areas, and remove areas whose dimension is less than or equal to a predetermined dimension from the skin spot areas to retain, as labeled skin spot areas, all areas whose dimension is greater than the predetermined dimension among the skin spot areas,
to generate a screen in which the skin spot areas labeled by the processor are displayed,
to obtain and analyze a number of the skin spots in the labeled skin spot areas, dimension of each of the skin spots and density of each of the skin spots based on melanin amounts for each generation of the plurality of subjects, and
to generate data obtained by quantifying a change over time of a characteristic of the skin spots of the plurality of skin images using an analyzed result,

wherein the processor is configured
to display the labeled skin spots by different colors based on predetermined dimension or diameter of each of the skin spot areas, the colors overlapping the skin spots on a skin image of a subject of the plurality of subjects, and
to display a first graph indicating the change over time of the characteristic of the skin spots in accordance with ages of the plurality of subjects, using the number of skin spots in the labeled skin spot areas, dimension of each of the skin spots and density of each of the skin spots, and

wherein a second graph is generated by plotting dimension of each of the skin spots and breaking down each generation age group on a per subject age basis.

5. The program according to claim 4 , wherein the processor is configured to extract the skin spot areas based on values of a melanin component obtained by analyzing the skin image.

6. The program according to claim 4 , wherein the processor is configured to display a distribution graph of the skin spot areas labeled by the processor for each dimension or each diameter.

Assignees

• Shiseido Co Ltd

Inventors

• Kikuchi Kumiko
• Masuda Yuji
• Hirao Tetsuji

Classifications

• G06T2207/30088

  Skin; Dermal · CPC title

• G06T7/62

  of area, perimeter, diameter or volume · CPC title

• G06T7/0012

  Biomedical image inspection · CPC title

• A61B2576/00

  Medical imaging apparatus involving image processing or analysis (A61B1/00009, A61B6/52 and A61B8/52 take precedence) · CPC title

• A61B5/7203

  for noise prevention, reduction or removal · CPC title