Skin Microscope Probe With Co-Registered pH and Bioimpedance Sensing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing skin examination devices fail to correlate sensor measurements accurately with the visual field of the skin microscope, leading to inadequate diagnostic support.
Innovation Solution
A device that integrates a skin microscope with sensors for pH, temperature, impedance, and hemoglobin saturation, allowing measurements to be taken directly in the visual field or its vicinity, using electromagnetic radiation and electrodes to ensure correlation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If sensors are integrated into skin examination devices, then measurement capabilities are improved, but the correlation between sensor measurements and the microscope's visual field deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the microscope and sensors into a single integrated probe head, where both components share the same physical structure and contact area with the skin. This integration ensures that the microscope's visual field and the sensors' measurement area are spatially correlated, as they both pertain to the same contact region on the skin surface.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a control unit as an intermediary that receives data from both the microscope and sensors, processes this information, and generates a unified diagnostic report. This control unit coordinates the data from multiple sources, ensuring that measurements and visual observations are properly correlated and integrated into a coherent diagnostic assessment.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple sensors are integrated into the device, then comprehensive skin analysis is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a multi-functional probe head that combines a microscope with multiple types of sensors (temperature, humidity, pH, electrical properties) within a single integrated structure. This universal design allows one device to perform comprehensive skin analysis across multiple parameters, eliminating the need for separate examination tools and reducing overall system complexity despite the multiple measurement capabilities.
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 comprehensive skin analysis by co-registering temperature, bioimpedance, and hemoglobin saturation in the microscope's field of view, providing detailed diagnostic insights comparable to advanced techniques like ultrasound and Doppler flowmetry.
Implementation Method 1
after having been at least partially reflected and/or dispersed from said first portion of said skin zone
Implementation Method 2
after having been at least partially reflected and/or dispersed from said first portion of said skin zone
Implementation Method 3
suitable for calculating the impedance of body tissues included in said zone, at least in correspondence with said first portion of said zone of skin
Implementation Method 4
by measuring the wavelength of electromagnetic radiations incident against said receiver after being emitted by said emitter and having been reflected and/or dispersed by said first portion of said skin zone
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed is a device including a skin microscope for acquiring images at different wavelengths of one or more areas of a person's skin. The device includes one or more pH sensors, one or more temperature sensors, a bioimpedance sensor and a pulse oximeter included in the device so that, together with the acquisition of a skin image, it is possible to co-register the temperature, the bioimpedance and saturation of hemoglobin in the field of view of the microscope, and the pH in the immediate vicinity of that field of view. The device can be connected to an electronic device, such as a “smartphone”, for the transmission of the acquired data to the latter, possibly after they have undergone initial processing using specific algorithms.