Skin diagnostic and image processing methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9101320-B2
Application number	US-201313859359-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 9, 2013
Priority date	Apr 9, 2013
Publication date	Aug 11, 2015
Grant date	Aug 11, 2015

Abstract

Skin diagnostic techniques employed in conjunction with image processing techniques. For example, a method includes performing one or more diagnostic operations on at least one portion of a user skin image to generate user skin image data, wherein the diagnostic operations are associated with an identified skin-related application. The user skin image data is processed in accordance with the identified skin-related application. The processing includes identifying one or more sets of skin image data in a database that correspond to the user skin image data based on parameters specified by the skin-related application, and determining at least one image processing filter based on the sets of identified skin image data. The image processing filter is applied to the user skin image to generate a simulated user skin image.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising steps of:
performing one or more diagnostic operations on at least one portion of a user skin image to generate user skin image data, wherein the one or more diagnostic operations are associated with an identified skin-related application;
processing the user skin image data in accordance with the identified skin-related application, wherein said processing comprises:
identifying one or more sets of skin image data in a database that correspond to the user skin image data based on one or more parameters specified by the skin-related application; and
determining at least one image processing filter based on the one or more sets of identified skin image data from the database; and

applying the at least one image processing filter to the at least one portion of the user skin image to generate a simulated user skin image;
wherein the user skin image comprises a parallel light image component and a perpendicular light image component, and the step of applying the at least one image processing filter to the at least one portion of the user skin image further comprises determining component contribution amounts for one or more of the parallel image light component and the perpendicular image light component based on at least a portion of the identified skin image data;
wherein one or more of the above steps are carried out by at least one computing device comprising a processor and a memory configured to implement the at least one image processing filter; and
wherein the parallel light image component comprises a specular component and first portion of an undertone component, and the perpendicular light image component comprises a second portion of the undertone component.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising capturing a user skin image.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein capturing a user skin image further comprises capturing at least one visible image of a portion of skin of the user.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein capturing a user skin image further comprises capturing at least one infrared image of a portion of skin of the user.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein capturing a user skin image further comprises capturing at least one ultraviolet image of a portion of skin of the user.

6. The method of claim 2 , further comprising providing the captured user skin image as a non-polarized image component, a parallel light image component and a perpendicular light image component.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising capturing user information via a text capture device.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising enabling selection of the skin-related application from a plurality of skin-related applications.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein performing one or more diagnostic operations further comprises determining user red, green, blue (RGB) color space values for one or more areas of the at least one portion of the user skin image.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising calculating average RGB color space values of the user RGB color space values for the one or more areas of the at least one portion of the user skin image.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising converting the average RGB color space values to user L, a, b color space values.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein identifying one or more sets of skin image data in the database that correspond to the user skin image data comprises identifying one or more L, a, b color space values in the database that approximately match the user L, a, b color space values.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein determining at least one image processing filter comprises setting the at least one image processing filter based on the one or more identified L, a, b color space values from the database.

14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising accessing a look-up table for identifying one or more L, a, b color space values from one or more spectral feature values.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user skin image further comprises a non-polarized image component.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein determining at least one image processing filter based on the one or more sets of identified skin image data from the database comprises determining a non-polarized image filter, a parallel light image filter and a perpendicular light image filter.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein applying the at least one image processing filter to the at least one portion of the user skin image to generate a simulated user skin image comprises:
applying the non-polarized image filter to the non-polarized image component to generate a proscenium image component;
applying the parallel light image filter to the parallel light image component to generate a simulated parallel light image component; and
applying the perpendicular light image filter to the perpendicular light image component to generate a simulated perpendicular light image component.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising combining the simulated parallel light image component and the simulated perpendicular light image component to generate a base simulated user image for the skin-related application.

19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising combining the base simulated user image with the proscenium image component to generate the simulated user skin image.

20. The method of claim 1 , further comprising outputting the simulated user skin image to a display.

21. The method of claim 1 , further comprising enabling selection of the at least one portion of a user skin image via manipulation of a graphical user interface.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein manipulation of the graphical user interface comprises executing a before/after swiper tool across the user skin image.

23. The method of claim 21 , wherein manipulation of the graphical user interface comprises executing a contrast operation on the user skin image.

24. The method of claim 21 , wherein manipulation of the graphical user interface comprises executing a lighting simulation operation on the user skin image.

25. The method of claim 21 , wherein manipulation of the graphical user interface comprises shrinking or enlarging the at least one portion of the user skin image via a sizing feature on the graphical user interface.

26. The method of claim 1 , wherein the skin-related application comprises one of a foundation matching application, a lines and wrinkles application, a skin lightening application, a skin de-yellowing application, and a de-aging application.

27. The method of claim 1 , wherein the skin-related application is identified via specification of at least one of a skin product and a skin product category.

28. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more parameters specified by the skin-related application comprises a user demographic parameter.

29. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more parameters specified by the skin-related application comprises a severity-time parameter.

30. A method comprising steps of:
obtaining a user skin image; and
applying a set of image processing filters to polarized components associated with at least a portion of the user skin image to modify the user skin image, wherein the set of image processing filters is controlled by data identified based on a diagnosis of a skin condition from at least a portion of

Assignees

• Elc Man Llc

Inventors

• Cummins Phillip
• Vanderover Garrett W
• Jorgensen Lise W
• Adams David M

Classifications

• G06T2207/30088

  Skin; Dermal · CPC title

• A61B5/0077

  Devices for viewing the surface of the body, e.g. camera, magnifying lens · CPC title

• G06T7/0016

  involving temporal comparison · CPC title

• A61B5/442

  Evaluating skin mechanical properties, e.g. elasticity, hardness, texture, wrinkle assessment · CPC title

• A61B5/441 Primary

  Skin evaluation, e.g. for skin disorder diagnosis · CPC title