Granted Patent B2

US 12,733,867 · App. 18/029,902 · Granted Sep 15, 2026

Inventor: Sachin V. Patwardhan (Mount Tabor, NJ)

Assignee: Canfield Scientific, Incorporated

A61B5/445A61B5/0071A61B5/0077

Abstract

Claims (63)

1 . A method comprising:

obtaining a cross-polarized image with a skin area appearing therein;

transforming the cross-polarized image to generate a red component image;

detecting erythema in the skin area using the red component image;

obtaining a texture image with the skin area appearing therein;

detecting raised portions of the skin area using the texture image;

generating an acne severity score based on the erythema and raised portions detected in the skin area; and

outputting an indication of the acne severity score.

2 . The method of claim 1 comprising:

obtaining a fluorescence image with the skin area appearing therein; and

detecting portions of the skin area containing a porphyrin indicative of acne,

wherein the acne severity score is generated based on said detected portions of the skin area.

3 . The method of claim 2 comprising performing one or more correction operations on at least one of the parallel-polarized image, the cross-polarized image, or the fluorescence image.

4 . The method of claim 2 comprising:

obtaining an excitation image with the skin area appearing therein;

correcting the fluorescence image using the excitation image; and

using the corrected fluorescence image to detect the portions of the skin area containing the porphyrin.

5 . The method of claim 2 , wherein generating the acne severity score includes:

determining a first metric based on the erythema detected in the skin area;

determining a second metric based on the raised portions detected in the skin area;

determining a third metric based on the detected portions of the skin area containing the porphyrin; and

calculating a combination of the first, second and third metrics.

6 . The method of claim 1 comprising obtaining a parallel-polarized image with the skin area appearing therein, wherein the texture image is generated using a combination of the parallel- and cross-polarized images.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting erythema in the skin area includes applying an adaptive thresholding technique to the red component image.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting raised portions of the skin area includes identifying in the texture image generally circular areas with centers brighter than their perimeters, including applying at least one of a brightness or a shape filtering operation to the texture image.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein transforming the cross-polarized image to generate a red component image includes performing an RBX transformation of the cross-polarized image.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the texture image is a three-dimensional image with the skin area appearing therein; and

the method includes using the texture image to measure at least one of the surface area or the volume of the raised portions of the skin area.

11 . A non-transitory computer readable storage medium containing instructions for execution by a processor for carrying out the method of claim 1 .

12 . An apparatus comprising:

a storage device configured to store instructions; and

a processor configured to execute instructions stored in the storage device to:

obtain a cross-polarized image with a skin area appearing therein;

transform the cross-polarized image to generate a red component image;

detect erythema in the skin area using the red component image;

obtain a texture image with the skin area appearing therein;

detect raised portions of the skin area using the texture image;

generate an acne severity score based on the erythema and raised portions detected in the skin area; and

output an indication of the acne severity score.

13 . The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the processor is configured to execute instructions to:

obtain a fluorescence image with the skin area appearing therein; and

detect portions of the skin area containing a porphyrin indicative of acne,

wherein the acne severity score is generated based on said detected portions of the skin area.

14 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the processor is configured to execute instructions to perform one or more correction operations on at least one of the parallel-polarized image, the cross-polarized image, or the fluorescence image.

15 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the processor is configured to execute instructions to:

obtain an excitation image with the skin area appearing therein;

correct the fluorescence image using the excitation image; and

use the corrected fluorescence image to detect the portions of the skin area containing the porphyrin.

16 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the processor is configured to execute instructions to generate the acne severity score by:

determining a first metric based on the erythema detected in the skin area;

determining a second metric based on the raised portions detected in the skin area;

determining a third metric based on the detected portions of the skin area containing the porphyrin; and

calculating a combination of the first, second and third metrics.

17 . The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the processor is configured to execute instructions to:

obtain a parallel-polarized image with the skin area appearing therein, and

generate the texture image using a combination of the parallel- and cross-polarized images.

18 . The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the processor is configured to execute instructions to detect erythema in the skin area by applying an adaptive thresholding technique to the red component image.

19 . The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the processor is configured to execute instructions to detect raised portions of the skin area including identifying in the texture image generally circular areas with centers brighter than their perimeters, including applying at least one of a brightness or a shape filtering operation to the texture image.

20 . The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the processor is configured to execute instructions to transform the cross-polarized image to generate a red component image by performing an RBX transformation of the cross-polarized image.

21 . The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein:

the texture image is a three-dimensional image with the skin area appearing therein; and

the processor is configured to execute instructions to use the texture image to measure at least one of the surface area or the volume of the raised portions of the skin area.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (23)