Apparatus and process for reading radiation reflected from human skin

• US 20050154276A1
• Filed: 03/17/2003
• Published: 07/14/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Alessandro Barducci, Claudio D.E. Felice, Roberto Casini
• Original Assignee: Alessandro Barducci, Claudio D.E. Felice, Roberto Casini
• Inventors: De Felice, Claudio, Casini, Roberto, Barducci, Alessandro
• Application Number:
  US10/508,543
• Publication Number:
  US 20050154276A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/407
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0059 using light, e.g. diagnosis by transillumination, diascopy, fluorescence A61B5/0093, A61B5/1455, A61B5/02416 and A61B5/0261 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/441 Skin evaluation, e.g. for skin disorder diagnosis

Abstract

An apparatus for reading radiation from human skin and processing it for diagnostic purposes comprises reading means (10), for reading a main radiation (100) from an individual'"'"'s skin, and a dispersive element (20), for separating the main radiation (100) into a plurality of portions (110) with different wavelengths. The apparatus (1) also has a transducer block (30), for receiving the portions (110) and generating a corresponding transmission signal (120), representative of the portions (110), and a processing block (50), which, according to the transmission signal (120), can calculate a predetermined number of physiological parameters characteristic of the individual'"'"'s skin.

Claims

1. An apparatus for reading radiation from human skin and processing it for diagnostic purposes, comprising:

reading means (10), for reading a main electromagnetic radiation (100) from an individual'"'"'s skin;

at least one dispersive element (20), being connected downstream of the reading means (10) to separate the main radiation (100) into at least two portions (110) with different wavelengths;

a transducer block (30), designed to receive the portions (110) of the main radiation (100) and to generate at output a corresponding transmission signal (120), representing the portions (110);

a processing block (50), being connected downstream of the transducer block (30) and designed to calculate a predetermined number of physiological parameters characteristic of the individual'"'"'s skin, according to the transmission signal (120);

characterised in that it further comprises an actuator (70) attached to the reading means (10) and designed to cover the reading means (10), preventing them from reading the main radiation (100) from the individual'"'"'s skin.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, characterised in that the processing block (50) is designed to calculate a plurality of physiological parameters characteristic of the individual'"'"'s skin, according to the transmission signal (120).

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, characterised in that the dispersive element (20) comprises diffraction means (21) to transmit each of the portions (110) of the main radiation (100) in a corresponding trajectory and/or in a corresponding time interval, according to the wavelength of each of the portions (110), the diffraction means (21) preferably having a lattice and/or a prism and/or an interferometer and/or a filter.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, characterised in that the dispersive element (20) comprises refraction means (22) to transmit each of the portions (110) of the main radiation (100) in a corresponding trajectory and/or in a corresponding time interval, according to the wavelength of each of the portions (110), the refraction means (22) preferably having a lattice and/or a prism and/or an interferometer and/or a filter.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, characterised in that the dispersive element (20) comprises interference means (23) to transmit each of the portions (110) of the main radiation (100) in a corresponding trajectory and/or in a corresponding time interval, according to the wavelength of each of the portions (110), the interference means (23) preferably having a lattice and/or a prism and/or an interferometer and/or a filter.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, characterised in that the dispersive element (20) comprises filter means (24) to transmit each of the portions (110) of the main radiation (100) in a corresponding trajectory and/or in a corresponding time interval, according to the wavelength of each of the portions (110), the filter means (24) preferably having a lattice and/or a prism and/or an interferometer and/or a filter.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, characterised in that the transducer block (30) comprises a predetermined number of light-sensitive elements (31), selected from one of Charge Coupled Device (CCD) type, or bolometers, or arrays of photodiodes, or sensors with CMOS direct addressing (non-sequential shift register) technology, being able to receive at input at least one predetermined portion (110) of the optical main radiation (100) and to supply at output the transmission signal (120), the signal being electrical and, being a function of the power of the portions (110).

8. The apparatus according to claim 1 or 7, characterised in that it also comprises an acquisition interface (40), between the light-sensitive elements (31) and the processing block (50), the acquisition interface (40) being designed to receive the transmission signal (120) and, according to the transmission signal (120), to generate at output a corresponding digital auxiliary signal (130), representative of optical properties of the individual'"'"'s skin and, in particular, of a reflected and/or transmitted irradiance of the individual'"'"'s skin.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8, characterised in that the acquisition interface (40) comprises:

an amplifier and compensator block (41), for receiving the transmission signal (120) and supplying an amplified and compensated signal (121) at output;

an analogue-to-digital converter (42), for converting the amplified and compensated signal (121) from the amplifier and compensator block (41) to digital form;

a main memory (44), for saving at least the information incorporated in the transmission signal (120);

a microcontroller (43), connected to the analogue-to-digital converter (42), to the main memory (44) and to the transducer block (30) and being designed to;

generate a scan signal (122), for activating the transducer block (30);

receive the digital signal from the analogue-to-digital converter (42) output;

save the information incorporated in the transmission signal (120) in the main memory (44);

supply at the processing block (50) output the information saved in the main memory (44), incorporating it in the digital auxiliary signal (130).

10. The apparatus according to claim 9 characterised in that the actuator (70), is preferably a mechanical actuator, the microcontroller (43) also being able to generate an activation signal (123) for the mechanical actuator (70).

11. The apparatus according to claim 8 characterised in that the processing block (50) is designed to:

receive the auxiliary signal (130);

process the information incorporated in the auxiliary signal (130), to obtain a function characteristic of the individual'"'"'s skin, said characteristic function preferably being a spectral reflectance and/or transmittance of the individual'"'"'s skin;

compare the characteristic function with a presaved function, to obtain the physiological parameters characteristic of the individual'"'"'s skin, according to the comparison.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11 characterised in that the processing block (50) is also designed to generate a cost function, according to the comparison between the characteristic function and the presaved function, and to apply an optimisation algorithm, in particular a minimisation algorithm, to the cost function, to obtain the physiological parameters.

13. The apparatus according to claim 1, characterised in that it also comprises an auxiliary memory (60), connected to the processing block (50), for saving the presaved function and a predetermined number of reference parameters, the processing block (50) also being designed to:

compare the physiological parameters with the reference parameters;

according to the comparison, generate an output signal (140), representative of the individual'"'"'s health status.

14. The apparatus according to claim 1, characterised in that each of the physiological parameters is a function of the concentration of a corresponding chromophore in the patient'"'"'s skin, each of the physiological parameters preferably being proportional and, in particular, substantially equal to the concentration of said corresponding chromophore.

15. A process for reading radiation from human skin and processing it for diagnostic purposes, characterised in that it comprises the following steps:

reading a main electromagnetic radiation (100), from an individual'"'"'s skin;

separating the main radiation (100) into at least two portions (110), having different wavelengths;

according to the portions (110) of the main radiation (100), calculating a predetermined number of physiological parameters characteristic of the individual'"'"'s skin.

16. The process according to claim 15, characterised in that the calculation step comprises an auxiliary calculation sub-step, for calculating a plurality of physiological parameters characteristic of the individual'"'"'s skin, according to the portions (110) of the main radiation (100).

17. The process according to claim 15 or 16, characterised in that it also comprises a step of transmitting each of the portions (110) of the main radiation (100) in a corresponding trajectory and/or in a corresponding time interval, according to the wavelength of each of the portions (110), the transmission step preferably following the separation step.

18. The process according to claim 17, characterised in that it also comprises, according to the transmission step, a step for generation of a transmission signal (120), which is a function of the power of the portions (110) of the main radiation (100) and, in particular, proportional to the power of the portions (110).

19. The process according to claim 18, characterised in that is also comprises the following steps:

converting the transmission signal (120) into digital form;

saving the information incorporated in the transmission signal (120).

20. The process according to claim 15, characterised in that it also comprises a transduction step, in which the portions (110) of the main, optical radiation (100) are converted into the transmission signal (120), the latter preferably being electrical.

21. The process according to claim 15, characterised in that it also comprises the following steps:

processing of the information incorporated in the transmission signal (120), to obtain a function characteristic of the individual'"'"'s skin, said characteristic function preferably being a spectral reflectance and/or transmittance of the individual'"'"'s skin;

comparing the characteristic function with a presaved function, to obtain the physiological parameters characteristic of the individual'"'"'s skin, according to the comparison.

22. The process according to claim 21, characterised in that the processing step comprises the following sub-steps:

generating a cost function, according to the comparison between the characteristic function and the presaved function;

applying an optimisation algorithm, in particular a minimisation algorithm, to the cost function in order to obtain the physiological parameters.

23. The process according to one of claims 21 or 22, characterised in that it also comprises the following steps, preferably after the processing step:

comparing the physiological parameters with a predetermined number of reference parameters;

generating an output signal (140), representative of the individual'"'"'s health status, according to the comparison.

24. The process according to claim 21, characterised in that each of the physiological parameters is a function of the concentration of a corresponding chromophore in the patient'"'"'s skin, each of the physiological parameters preferably being proportional and, in particular, equal to the concentration of the corresponding chromophore.