Systems, methods, and devices for assessing microbiota of skin

• US 9,390,312 B2
• Filed: 08/23/2013
• Issued: 07/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Elwha LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Elwha LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Bangera, Mahalaxmi G., Baym, Michael H., Hyde, Roderick A., Kare, Jordin T., Leuthardt, Eric C., McKnight, Gary L., Pan, Tony S., Sharadin, Katherine E., Sweeney, Elizabeth A., Tegreene, Clarence T., Wood, Lowell L. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Strege, John
• Application Number:
  US13/975,055
• Publication Number:
  US 20150054930A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,054 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/441 Skin evaluation, e.g. for skin disorder diagnosis
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6814 Head
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/693 Acquisition

Abstract

Devices, systems, and methods for assessing microbiota of skin are described which include: a skin-covering material with an inner surface conforming in shape to a topography of a skin surface and including a microbe-capture region; an image-capture device to capture a least one image of the inner surface of the skin-covering material and to transform the captured at least one image into a digital output including information associated with at least one property and a spatial distribution of at least one type of microbe bound to the microbe-capture region; and a computing device including circuitry configured to receive the digital output from the image-capture device, compare the at least one property of the at least one type of microbe with a database of reference microbe properties, and generate a digital profile including the at least one property and the spatial distribution of the at least one type of microbe bound to the microbe-capture region of the skin-covering material.

Claims

1. A system for assessing microbiota of skin comprising:

a skin-covering material having an inner surface and an outer surface, the inner surface substantially conforming in shape to a topography of a skin surface of an individual and including a microbe-capture region;

an image-capture device including circuitry to capture at least one image of the inner surface of the skin-covering material and to transform the captured at least one image into a digital output including information associated with at least one property and a spatial distribution of at least one type of microbe bound to the microbe-capture region; and

a computing device including a processor, the computing device operably coupled to the image-capture device and including circuitry configured to

receive the digital output from the image-capture device including the information associated with the at least one property and the spatial distribution of the at least one type of microbe bound to the microbe-capture region;

compare the at least one property of the at least one type of microbe with a database of reference microbe properties; and

generate a digital profile including the at least one property and the spatial distribution of the at least one type of microbe bound to the microbe-capture region of the skin-covering material.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the digital profile includes an identification of the at least one type of microbe bound to the microbe-capture region based on comparison of the at least one property of the at least one type of microbe with the database of reference microbe properties.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the skin-covering material includes at least one registration mark to register the skin-covering material to at least one landmark on the skin surface of the individual.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the skin-covering material includes one or more tearable lines of perforations.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the skin-covering material includes a mouthpiece.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein one or more surfaces of the mouthpiece substantially conform in shape to the topography of at least a portion of a mouth region of an individual.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the skin-covering material includes a pre-formed skin-covering material.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the inner surface of the pre-formed skin-covering material is personalized to substantially conform in shape to the topography of the skin surface of the individual.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the skin-covering material includes a peelable skin-covering material.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the microbe-capture region forms a separate layer on the inner surface of the skin-covering material.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the microbe-capture region is replaceable.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the microbe-capture region includes at least one of an adhesive, an absorbent, or an adsorbent.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the microbe-capture region includes a biomolecule-binding polymer.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the microbe-capture region includes a gel.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the inner surface of the skin-covering material includes a medicament.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the image-capture device includes at least one of a camera, a scanning device, a spectrometer, or a spectrophotometer.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the image-capture device includes a feeding mechanism and an imaging surface sized to accommodate at least a portion of the entirety of the skin-covering material, wherein the feeding mechanism is configured to feed in the at least a portion of the skin-covering material onto the imaging surface.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the image-capture device and the computing device including the processor are incorporated into an interactive kiosk.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device includes circuitry configured to generate a digital alignment of the digital profile of the at least one type of microbe bound to the microbe-capture region of the skin-covering material with a digital image of the skin surface of the individual covered by the microbe-capture region of the skin-covering material.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device includes circuitry configured to report to a user a personalized microbe profile, the personalized microbe profile including an identity of the at least one type of microbe and a spatial distribution of the identified at least one type of microbe on the skin surface of the individual.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the circuitry configured to report to the user includes circuitry configured to export information regarding the personalized microbe profile to at least one second computing device.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device includes circuitry configured to generate a treatment recommendation based on an identity of the at least one type of microbe and a spatial distribution of the at least one type of microbe on the skin surface of the individual.

23. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one enhancing component to enhance binding of the at least one type of microbe on the microbe-capture region of the inner surface of the skin-covering material.

24. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one signal-generating agent to associate with the at least one type of microbe bound to the microbe-capture region on the inner surface of the skin-covering material.

25. A method comprising:

receiving a digital output from an image-capture device, the digital output including information associated with at least one property and a spatial distribution of at least one type of microbe captured on a microbe-capture region on an inner surface of a skin-covering material;

identifying the at least one type of microbe captured on the microbe-capture region by comparing the information associated with the at least one property of the at least one type of microbe with a database of reference microbe properties; and

reporting to a user an identification and spatial profile of the identified at least one type of microbe captured on the microbe-capture region on the inner surface of the skin-covering material.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein comparing the information associated with the at least one property of the at least one type of microbe with the database of reference microbe properties includes comparing at least one of an optical property, an autofluorescence property, an infrared spectral property, a reflective property, a light scattering property, an acoustic property, or an opacity property with the database of reference microbe properties.

27. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

generating a digital alignment of the spatial profile of the identified at least one type of microbe captured on a microbe-capture region on the inner surface of the skin-covering material with a digital image of the skin surface of an individual covered by the microbe-capture region of the skin-covering material; and

reporting to the user a personalized microbe profile including the identification and the spatial profile of the identified at least one type of microbe on the skin surface of the individual.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein reporting to the user the personalized microbe profile includes providing at least one of a visual representation of the personalized microbe profile on a display or providing a printout, the printout including the personalized microbe profile.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein reporting to the user the personalized microbe profile includes exporting the personalized microbe profile to a computing device.

30. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

comparing the personalized microbe profile with a reference microbe profile;

generating a recommended treatment regimen for the individual based on the comparison; and

reporting the recommended treatment regimen to the user.

31. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

receiving a digital output from the image-capture device, the digital output including information associated with at least one property and a spatial distribution of at least one type of microbe captured on a microbe-capture region on an inner surface of a mouthpiece;

identifying the at least one type of microbe captured on the microbe-capture region by comparing the information associated with the at least one property of the at least one type of microbe with the database of reference microbe properties; and

reporting to the user an identification and spatial profile of the identified at least one type of microbe captured on a microbe-capture region on an inner surface of a mouthpiece.

32. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

applying the skin-covering material to the skin surface of the individual;

removing the skin-covering material from the skin surface of the individual; and

capturing at least one image of the inner surface of the skin-covering material with an image-capture device and transforming the captured at least one image into a digital output, the digital output including information associated with at least one property and a spatial distribution of at least one type of microbe bound to the microbe-capture region.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein applying the skin-covering material to the skin surface of the individual includes applying the skin-covering material to a mouth region of the individual, wherein the skin-covering material includes a mouthpiece.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein applying the skin-covering material to the skin surface of the individual includes applying the skin-covering material to the skin surface of the individual in the presence of at least one of a vacuum or a stimulus.

35. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

applying at least one signal-generating agent to the skin-covering material prior to capturing the at least one image of the inner surface of the skin-covering material;

capturing the at least one image of the inner surface of the skin-covering material with the image-capture device to detect one or more signals emitted or reflected from the at least one signal-generating agent bound to one or more of the at least one type of microbe bound to the microbe-capture region; and

transforming the one or more signals into a digital output.

36. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

separating the skin-covering material into one or more pieces along one or more tearable lines of perforations; and

capturing at least one image with the image-capture device of the inner surface of at least one of the one or more pieces of the skin-covering material.

37. An article of manufacture comprising:

non-transitory machine readable media bearing one or more instructions for assessing microbiota of skin, the one or more instructions including

one or more instructions for receiving a digital output from an image-capture device, the digital output including information associated with at least one property and a spatial distribution of at least one type of microbe captured on a microbe-capture region on an inner surface of a skin-covering material;

one or more instructions for comparing the information associated with the at least one property of the at least one type of microbe captured on the microbe-capture region with a database of reference microbe properties;

one or more instructions for generating a microbe profile including the at least one property and the spatial distribution of the at least one type of microbe captured on the microbe-capture region;

one or more instructions for generating a recommended treatment regimen for an individual based on a comparison of the microbe profile with a reference microbe profile; and

one or more instructions for reporting to a user at least one of the microbe profile or the recommended treatment regimen.

38. The article of manufacture of claim 37, wherein the non-transitory machine readable media includes one or more instructions for identifying the at least one type of microbe captured on the microbe-capture region by comparing the information associated with the at least one property of the at least one type of microbe with the database of reference microbe properties.

39. A system comprising:

an image-capture device including circuitry to capture at least one image of an inner surface of a skin-covering material and to transform the captured at least one image into a digital output including information associated with at least one property and a spatial distribution of at least one type of microbe bound to the inner surface of the skin-covering material;

a computing device including a processor, the computing device operably coupled to the image-capture device; and

non-transitory machine readable media readable by the computing device and bearing one or more instructions for assessing microbiota of a skin surface of an individual, the one or more instructions including

one or more instructions for receiving the digital output from the image-capture device, the digital output including information associated with the at least one property and the spatial distribution of the at least one type of microbe bound to the inner surface of the skin-covering material;

one or more instructions for comparing the information associated with the at least one property of the at least one type of microbe bound to the inner surface of the skin-covering material with a database of reference microbe properties;

one or more instructions for generating a microbe profile including the at least one property and the spatial distribution of the at least one type of microbe bound to the inner surface of the skin-covering material;

one or more instructions for generating a recommended treatment regimen for the individual based on a comparison of the microbe profile with a reference microbe profile; and

one or more instructions for reporting to a user at least one of the microbe profile or the recommended treatment regimen.