The present invention relates to a device factor calculation system based on skin surface displacement, and more particularly to a device factor calculation system based on skin surface displacement configured to derive displacement data around a coagulation spot from images captured before and after formation of the coagulation spot on skin, thereby calculating a size and shape of a contraction zone caused by the coagulation spot.
The number of consumers visiting dermatologists due to skin sagging and undergoing skin procedures, such as lifting procedures, has been continuously increasing since such skin procedures have relatively short recovery periods compared to plastic surgeries and effectively enable facial wrinkle lifting (that is, skin area contraction).
Here, an energy-based medical device for skin area contraction forms a coagulation zone on the skin around a target point. In more detail, the reticular dermis includes spiral collagen bundles, which are arranged in a direction parallel to the skin surface, and when each bundle is thermally coagulated, a spiral structure unwinds and becomes tangled to be shorter. When energy is applied to one point of a reticular dermis layer to form a coagulation spot, the reticular dermis layer within a range of coagulation around the point contracts in a direction toward the coagulation spot in a plane parallel to the skin surface to form a contraction zone. When several such coagulation spots are formed, an immediate area reduction of a zone including the coagulation spots is expected, and thus the energy-based medical device uses this principle to induce a cosmetic effect by flattening the skin.
However, there is a limitation that the effect is not constant when the procedure is performed on actual patients. In other words, efficiency of planar contraction of the skin through induction of multiple dermal coagulation spots is not consistent in reality. When coagulation ranges do not contact each other and are separated from each other, non-coagulated skin therebetween increases (compensatory dilatation) and the overall area reduction effect is reduced. Conversely, when overlap between coagulation zones occurs, temperature excessively rises (for example, to about 80 degrees Celsius or more), and thus there is a risk of covalent bonds inside collagen molecules breaking down, causing dissolution thereof. In addition, even when adjacent coagulation ranges are to be in contact, a contraction zone caused by one coagulation spot varies depending on several factors such as a patient receiving the procedure, a region, output of the device, a depth, and an angle, and there is no method to instantly identify a size and shape of a contraction zone induced by one coagulation spot to date.
Therefore, theoretically, in order to optimize skin area reduction effects using an energy-based device, technology capable of finding a size and shape of a contraction zone generated by one coagulation spot is needed. That is, it should be possible to adjust a location where adjacent coagulation spots are generated or output thereof based on information on the size and shape of the contraction zone generated by each coagulation spot found by the above technology. However, at present, in this procedure, the size and shape of the contraction zone generated by each coagulation spot are estimated and a distance between coagulation spots and output adjustment of the device are determined depending on intuition of an operator, and thus there are limitations in terms of efficiency, reproducibility, and safety of the procedure.
Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a device factor calculation system based on skin surface displacement configured to use skin surface information before and after formation of a coagulation spot of skin as input to calculate a size of a contraction zone caused by the coagulation spot.
In accordance with the present invention, the above and other objects can be accomplished by the provision of a device factor calculation system based on skin surface displacement including a preprocessor configured to take captured images before and after a skin procedure through an energy-based medical device as input to preprocess landmarks of skin as location data in the captured images before and after the skin procedure, a displacement calculator configured to derive landmark displacement data from landmark location data of the skin derived by the preprocessor, and to derive location data of a contraction center O based on the landmark displacement data and a boundary deriver configured to derive a boundary of a contraction zone from the contraction center O in the skin procedure.
The energy-based medical device may be configured to apply energy to one focus of the skin to cause a local temperature rise, thereby generating a contraction zone based on the one focus of the skin, and include high-frequency, laser, and high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) devices.
The landmarks of the skin may include dots or lines marked with pigment, and sweat glands, hair glands, sebaceous glands, pigmented lesions, moles, skin tumors, blood vessels, and wrinkle lines on a skin surface as reference points enabling tracking of positional change of a skin procedure target part before and after the procedure in the captured images before and after the skin procedure through the energy-based medical device.
The preprocessor may be configured to calculate and store location data A of landmarks before the skin procedure on a skin surface in the captured image before the skin procedure, and calculate and store location data B of landmarks after the skin procedure on the skin surface in the captured image after the skin procedure according to movement of locations of the landmarks before the skin procedure on the skin surface to the contraction center O by the skin procedure.
The preprocessor may be configured to represent the location data A of the landmarks before the skin procedure on the skin surface as A[(i, j)ij], and represent the location data B of the landmarks after the skin procedure on the skin surface as B[(i′, j′)ij].
The displacement calculator may calculate, as the landmark displacement data D, a displacement vector reflecting a result of movement from location data before the skin procedure to location data after the procedure based on the landmark location data of the skin derived by the preprocessor, and the landmark displacement data D may be represented as [(i′−i, j′−j)ij], where i′ and j′ are a row i′ and a column j′ of B[(i′, j′)ij], and i and j are a row i and a column j of A[(i, j)ij].
The boundary deriver may include a graph deriver configured to derive a displacement graph of each point moving toward the contraction center O for each location on a straight line passing through, at an angle θ, the contraction center O corresponding to a location of a focus to which the energy-based medical device applies energy based on the landmark displacement data, and a boundary deriver configured to calculate a distance R from the contraction center O to the boundary of the contraction zone based on graph analysis result data derived by the graph deriver.
The graph deriver may set the location data of the contraction center O corresponding to a location of a focus to which the energy-based medical device applies energy based on the landmark displacement data D, the location data of the contraction center O may be a location of a point to which landmark points on a skin surface are commonly directed during skin coagulation according to the procedure, and a location of an intersection point of straight lines, which are obtained by points corresponding to respective elements (i, j)ij of location data A of landmarks before the skin procedure on the skin surface each directed in a direction of an element {right arrow over (δ)}ij vector of the landmark displacement data D, may be set to (io, jo).
The graph deriver may perform parallel translation by −io on an i-axis and −jo on a j-axis with respect to a contraction center O (io, jo, 0) in the skin procedure, and perform rotation by the angle θ at which the contraction center O in the skin procedure is passed through on a k-axis, thereby deriving a graph of k with respect to i in an ik-plane (j=0).
The boundary deriver may be configured to derive a graph of a regression curve of a distance by which each point moves toward the contraction center O in the skin procedure for each location on a horizontal line (θ=0) passing through the contraction center O in the skin procedure, and calculate a distance from the contraction center O to the boundary R of the contraction zone from the captured image before the procedure based on a fact that the distance is close to a distance from the contraction center O to a point where a slope of a tangent becomes 0 on the regression curve.
According to the device factor calculation system based on skin surface displacement described above:
First, it is possible to derive displacement of each point on a skin surface that contracts when one focal point of skin is treated using an energy-based medical device.
Second, it is possible to derive a location of a contraction center caused by the procedure based on photographs taken before and after the procedure.
Third, it is possible to quantitatively express an aspect of skin contraction by the procedure based on the derived data.
Fourth, it is possible to quantitatively express an aspect of skin contraction, which varies according to a patient undergoing the procedure and a part thereof and according to a type and output of the device, whenever the system is applied.
Fifth, it is possible to generate data necessary for deriving an optimal next procedure location or procedure output during the procedure based on mathematical calculation rather than intuition of the operator.
Sixth, it is possible to combine distribution information on a contraction aspect of skin in several parts in one procedure target to calculate and propose a two-dimensional (2D) arrangement and order of several procedure points for realizing a change to desired appearance through manipulation of a location of each point on the skin.
A device factor calculation system based on skin surface displacement according to embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Since the present invention may undergo various changes and have various forms, specific embodiments will be illustrated in the drawings and described in detail in the text. However, this is not intended to limit the present invention to a specific form disclosed, and should be understood to include all modifications, equivalents, or substitutes included in the spirit and scope of the present invention. Like reference numerals have been used for like elements throughout the description of each figure. In the accompanying drawings, dimensions of structures are illustrated to be enlarger than actual ones for clarity of the present invention, or reduced compared to actual ones for understanding of schematic configurations.
In addition, even though terms such as first and second may be used to describe various components, the components should not be limited by the terms. The terms are only used for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another. For example, a first component may be referred to as a second component, and similarly, the second component may be may be referred to as the first component, without departing from the scope of the present invention. Meanwhile, unless defined otherwise, all terms used herein, including technical or scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains. Terms such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries should be interpreted as having meanings consistent with meanings in the context of the related art, and should not be interpreted as having ideal or excessively formal meanings unless explicitly defined in the present application.
The present invention relates to a device factor calculation system based on skin surface displacement, and more particularly to a device factor calculation system based on skin surface displacement configured to derive displacement data around a coagulation spot from images captured before and after formation of the coagulation spot on the skin, thereby calculating a size and shape of a coagulation range caused by the coagulation spot. Therefore, the present invention calculates the size and shape of the coagulation range through skin surface information before and after generation of the coagulation spot, thereby aiding in optimization of procedure factors such as a distance between adjacent coagulation spots and output of the device during a cosmetic procedure using an energy-based medical device.
Referring to
That is, in more detail, the preprocessor 100 takes, as input, captured images before and after a procedure, in which the energy-based medical device generates a coagulation spot by applying energy to one focal point of the skin, to calculate (preprocess) skin landmark location data before and after generation of the coagulation spot. Thereafter, the displacement calculator 200 calculates displacement data of the skin landmark based on a change in the landmark location data before and after the procedure, and calculates and derives location data of the contraction center O from the landmark location data and the displacement data. Finally, the boundary deriver 300 calculates a distance R from the contraction center O to a contraction zone boundary based on the location data, the displacement data, and the location data of the contraction center O. Here, a medical device configured to apply energy to one focus of the skin to cause a local temperature rise, thereby generating a contraction zone based on the one focus of the skin, and transfer physical energy to body tissue to change the tissue is given as an example of the energy-based medical device, and examples thereof include high-frequency, laser, and high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) devices.
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Thereafter, the location data A of the landmarks on the skin surface before the skin procedure is represented as A[(i, j)ij], and the location data B of the landmarks on the skin surface after the skin procedure is represented as B[(i′, j′)ij]. That is, in more detail, as an embodiment of the present invention, in order to calculate each of the location data A of the landmarks on the skin surface before the skin procedure and the location data B of the landmarks on the skin surface after the skin procedure, pixel coordinates in the captured images before and after the skin procedure are expressed in a 2D Cartesian coordinate system having the origin at a top left vertex of the images, an i-axis directed downward along a vertical line, and a j-axis directed rightward along a horizontal line, and represented by the following matrix A in which coordinates (i, j) of each pixel on the image data correspond to an element in a row i and a column j.
The location data B of the landmarks on the skin surface after the skin procedure may be represented by a matrix [(i′, j′)ij] having, as an element, coordinates (i′, j′) of a point at which each element [(i, j)ij] of the matrix A arrives after contraction.
Referring to
(Here, i′ and j′ are a row i′ and a column j′ of B[(i′, j′)ij], and i and j are a row i and a column j of A[(i, j)ij].
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As an embodiment of the present invention, the graph of the distance (displacement) by which each point moves toward the contraction center O for each point on the straight line passing through the contraction center O at the desired angle θ in the captured image before the procedure obtained by the graph deriver 300a regresses to a distribution curve D(i) having positive numbers as elements (Lognormal distribution, Chi-square distribution, F-distribution, and other distribution curves having positive numbers as elements). Thus, with respect to a distance (i) from the contraction center O to an element of the location data A before the procedure derived by the preprocessor 100, a graph of a distance (i′) to an element of the location data B after the procedure corresponding to the element may be represented by B (i)=i−D(i). Therefore, the boundary deriver 300b may derive a size and shape of the contraction zone based on the fact that an i-coordinate at a point where a slope B′ (i) of a tangent is 1 is close to a distance from the contraction center O to the boundary R of the contraction zone in the same direction on the curve B (i). Here, the graph of the distance (i′) to the element of the location data B after the procedure corresponding to the element of the location data A before the procedure with respect to the distance (i) from the contraction center O to the element of the location data A before the procedure derived by the preprocessor 100 regresses to the curve B (i).
Further, in an embodiment of the present invention, when a cross section of the displacement graph derived by the graph deriver 300a regresses to a distribution curve having positive numbers as elements, a mode of the distribution, that is, an i-coordinate at a highest point where a slope of a tangent is 0 is close to a distance from the contraction center O to the boundary R of the contraction zone on a straight line passing through the contraction center O at an angle corresponding to the cross section, and thus the boundary deriver 300b may calculate the size and shape of the contraction zone. Since the distance from the contraction center O to the boundary R of the contraction zone may vary depending on the direction of the straight line passing through the contraction center O, the 3D graph derived by the graph deriver 300a may be rotated by a desired angle around the contraction center O to cause the boundary deriver 300b to calculate a distance to the boundary R of the contraction zone in all directions with respect to the contraction center O, which corresponds to obtaining the size and shape of the contraction zone.
Referring to
In the regressing displacement distribution curve D(i), a highest point corresponds to a mode, and a slope D′(i) of a tangent at the point is 0. In the lognormal distribution, a mode is eμ-σ
According to the device factor calculation system based on skin surface displacement described above, there are the following effects. First, it is possible to derive displacement of each point on a skin surface that contracts when one focal point on the skin is treated using an energy-based medical device. Second, it is possible to derive a location of a contraction center caused by the procedure based on photographs taken before and after the procedure. Third, it is possible to quantitatively express an aspect of skin contraction by the procedure based on the derived data. Fourth, it is possible to quantitatively express an aspect of skin contraction, which varies according to a patient undergoing the procedure and a part thereof and according to a type and output of the device, whenever the system is applied. Fifth, it is possible to generate data necessary for deriving an optimal next procedure location or procedure output during the procedure based on mathematical calculation rather than intuition of the operator. Sixth, it is possible to combine distribution information on a contraction aspect of skin in several parts in one procedure target to calculate and propose a 2D arrangement and order of several procedure points for realizing a change to desired appearance through manipulation of a location of each point on the skin.
Even though the detailed description of the present invention described above has been given with reference to preferred embodiments of the present invention, those skilled in the art or those having ordinary knowledge in the art may understand that the present invention may be variously modified and changed within the scope not departing from the spirit and technical scope of the present invention described in the claims to be described later.
The device factor calculation system based on skin surface displacement may be installed in various energy-based medical devices such as fractional fine needle radiofrequency, fractional laser, and high-intensity focused ultrasound, and cosmetic effects may be maximized through automatic calculation of contraction of a skin plane and a calculated value.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2022-0062212 | May 2022 | KR | national |
10-2022-0097349 | Aug 2022 | KR | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/KR2022/017758 | 11/11/2022 | WO |