Micro-relief analysis with skin capacitive imaging

In this study, the performance of capacitive imagining in skin micro-relief analysis was investigated. This measurement principle has been used for skin hydration measurements over the last decade and it is commercially available by various manufacturers. Strengthening its potential for new applications could offer an affordable and portable multi-purpose device for in vivo skin research. Previous studies in the literature have used a wide range of optical devices to determine how the skin surface topographic features are affected by chronological age, environmental influences and living habits.

A capacitive system was used in order to capture hydration images from the middle volar forearm of twelve volunteers. The visual output of the system was studied and image processing algorithms were adapted to automatically extract skin micro-relief features. The change in the skin network of lines during arm extension, the lines' anisotropy index and the number of closed polygons per skin surface area were plotted against the subjects' chronological age. The results were compared with optical measurements from the literature to validate our algorithms and evaluate the capacitive imaging in skin micro-relief analysis.

The change in the intensity of primary and secondary lines during arm extension and the number of closed polygons per surface area were in agreement with the literature. The anisotropy index output gave inconclusive results.

The experimental results show that the capacitive systems could only extract two-dimensional skin topographic features.