Method and apparatus for measuring moisture content of skin
First Claim
1. An apparatus for performing an in vivo measurement of the moisture content of animal or human skin comprising means for directing light toward a skin surface, means for detecting the degree of polarization of the light reflected from said skin surface, and means for determining the moisture content of the skin in accordance with the detected degree of reflected light polarization.
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Abstract
There are disclosed a method and an apparatus for measuring moisture content of skin. The skin surface is illuminated with polarized light incident at the Brewster angle. The degree of polarization of the light refracted within the skin and reflected out is measured. The measurement is a function of the refractive index of the skin which, in turn, is a function of the moisture content. To avoid measurement variations due to such things as skin color, output readings are in the form of a ratio of the reflected polarized light intensity to the reflected total light intensity.
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Citations
27 Claims
- 1. An apparatus for performing an in vivo measurement of the moisture content of animal or human skin comprising means for directing light toward a skin surface, means for detecting the degree of polarization of the light reflected from said skin surface, and means for determining the moisture content of the skin in accordance with the detected degree of reflected light polarization.
- 11. An in vivo method for measuring the moisture content of animal or human skin comprising the steps of directing light toward a skin surface, detecting the degree of polarization of the light reflected from said skin surface, and determining the moisture content of the skin in accordance with the detected degree of reflected light polarization.
- 21. An in vivo method for measuring the moisture content of animal or human skin comprising the steps of directing light toward a skin surface, measuring the intensity of light reflected from said skin surface, selectively placing analyzing means in the path of said reflected light to permit the taking of a first measurement indicative of the degree of polarization of said reflected light and the taking of a second measurement indicative of the total reflected light, and determining a ratio whose two factors are said first and second measurements.
Specification