Improved quantitative evaluation of atopic dermatitis by camera calibration and rectification of a stereo image

The aim of this study was to establish a scientific assessment method to evaluate the severity of atopic dermatitis (AD) by calibrating part of a previously described stereo-image optical topometer (SOT).

The old SOT was created using a non-convergence model. However, this study utilizes a convergence model. Camera calibration and rectification were performed using images obtained from stereo cameras. We attempted to verify the efficacy of AD treatment by objectively measuring the improvement in a group of subjects. Twenty AD patients with a variety of disease types were divided into a control group and a treatment group.

The scoring of the AD (SCORAD) index did not show any improvements in the treated patients. However, when comparing the advanced SOT and the old SOT, we observed a decreased variation for five parameters, indicating that the treated patients experienced improved outcomes compared with controls. Most notably, we found that the coefficient of variation of the advanced SOT was lower than that of the old SOT.

We conclude that the advanced SOT may be useful for evaluating AD. The use of an advanced stereo image system may yield more reliable results than the old SOT system.