Dermoscope High-Angle Illumination Transparent Hair Imaging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing dermoscopy and trichoscopy methods face limitations in accurately imaging and measuring grey, blond, or white hair due to difficulty in capturing high-quality images and performing reliable measurements, as well as challenges in visualizing structures with low contrast against their environment.
Innovation Solution
A dermoscope with a light source, light shaping unit, and image forming lens is designed to provide high-angle illumination, using refraction and total internal reflection to image transparent hair, allowing for the detection and imaging of grey and blond hair by directing light at incident angles greater than 70 degrees relative to the optical axis, and optionally using low-angle light for reflective imaging.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If standard reflective trichoscopy is used to image hair, then pigmented dark hair can be visualized, but transparent grey, blond or white hair cannot be imaged with sufficient quality
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the illumination angle parameter from conventional low angles to high angles (>70 degrees relative to optical axis), enabling refraction-based imaging of transparent hair structures that are invisible with standard reflective methods. This parameter change transforms the imaging mechanism from reflection-dominated to refraction-dominated, making transparent hair visible.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a light shaping unit as an intermediary optical component between the light source and the scalp. This unit shapes and directs light at high angles to penetrate transparent hair structures, acting as a mediator that enables the interaction between light and transparent hair that would otherwise be impossible with direct illumination.
2Difficulty of detecting and measuring
If high-angle light (>70 degrees) is used to image transparent hair via refraction, then grey and blond hair become visible, but the optical system becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The light shaping unit serves as an intermediary that simplifies the overall system by integrating the high-angle light directing function into a single optical component. Rather than requiring complex external optics and alignment systems, the light shaping unit internally manages the high-angle illumination geometry, making the system easier to implement while achieving refraction-based imaging of transparent hair.
3Measurement precision
If immersion fluid is used to reduce skin surface reflections, then image quality improves, but skin surface reflections are not completely eliminated
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the illumination angle parameter to high angles (>70 degrees), which fundamentally alters how light interacts with the skin surface. At these high angles, the geometry of reflection and refraction changes such that skin surface reflections are naturally minimized while refraction into transparent hair structures is maximized, providing inherent suppression of harmful reflections without relying solely on immersion fluid.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables accurate imaging and measurement of transparent hair and structures on the skin, overcoming the limitations of standard dermoscopes by using refractive trichoscopy to capture images that would otherwise be difficult or impossible with reflective trichoscopy, and providing a combined refractive-reflective image for better registration and analysis.
Implementation Method 1
The light shaping unit is arranged to direct at least part of the light via an immersion fluid to the part of the skin having the one or more at least partly transparent structures to be imaged at incident angles in the immersion fluid larger than 70 degrees relative to the optical axis of the dermoscope
Implementation Method 2
The image forming lens is arranged to receive at least part of the light refracted by the one or more at least partly transparent structures
Implementation Method 3
allows for the detection and imaging of grey and blond hair by directing light at incident angles greater than 70 degrees relative to the optical axis, and optionally using low-angle light for reflective imaging
Data Source
AI summary
Some embodiments are directed to a dermoscope and a method for forming an image of a part of a skin having one or more at least partly transparent structures, such as at least partly transparent hair. The dermoscope has a light source, a light shaping unit, and an image forming lens. The light source is arranged to provide light to the light shaping unit. The light shaping unit is arranged to direct at least part of the light via an immersion fluid to the part of the skin having the one or more at least partly transparent structures to be imaged at incident angles in the immersion fluid larger than 70 degrees relative to the optical axis of the dermoscope. The image forming lens is arranged to receive at least light refracted from the one or more at least partly transparent structures.