METHODOLOGY FOR DETERMINING CONCENTRATION OF THE TYPES OF MELANIN PIGMENT IN THE SKIN

摘要

The present invention relates generally to a methodology of determining the concentration of the types of melanin, either eumelanin or pheomelanin, in the skin wherein the process for such determination is non-invasive and based on digital signal and image analysis of hyperspectral sensing and multi-spectral data.

主权项

1. Methodology for determining the concentration of melanin pigment in human skin comprising steps of,
measuring actual spectral reflectance (12) of skin (10) using a visible light intensity sensing device (2) and recording this multi-spectral data using a recording device (8) for retrieval when required; selecting the initial concentration of a type of melanin pigment and recording simulated spectral reflectance (18) using Monte Carlo simulation; comparing and measuring the difference between data collected from the visible light intensity sensing device (2) and data simulated from the Monte Carlo simulation determining the difference between the two sets of data; estimating the concentration of the melanin pigment if the difference is smaller than an acceptable level; altering the concentration of a selected type of melanin pigment and repeating the process from the spectral reflectance (18) using Monte Carlo simulation if the difference is larger than an acceptable level; repeating the process until the difference is smaller than an acceptable level and then estimating the level of a selected type of melanin pigment.