Abstract: A system for collecting, storing and displaying dermatological images for the purpose of monitoring and diagnosis of skin conditions and skin cancers, including melanoma. A hand-held unit illuminates a section of the patient's skin, and an imaging device generates imaging signals from light derived from a skin section. Pairs of light output ports in the hand-held unit are arranged such that their intensity distributions overlap at their half-intensity levels so that the resulting summation of their intensities has a flat central region. Three image stores are maintained, one for lesion images, one for “nearby skin” images, and one for reference-white images. The “nearby skin” images are used by the system software to automatically determine the skin/lesion border. The reference white images are used to set the dynamic range of the instrument and to compensate for lighting irregularities.

Abstract: An image (502) of an area of skin that includes a lesion (304) is captured. An annular variance test is performed on pixels around the lesion (304) (step 514). Based on the results of the annular variance test, either a seeded region growing method (step 516) or a colour clustering method (step 520) is applied to the image (502) to calculate a boundary of the lesion (304). The colour cluster method may produce multiple selectable boundaries. Provision is also made for a lesion boundary to be manually traced (step 522).

Abstract: An automated dermatological examination system captures an image including a lesion. The image is divided into lesion and non-lesion areas, and the lesion area is analysed to quantify features for use in diagnosis of the lesion. Features of lesion colour are extracted (step 502) and the shape of the lesion is analysed (step 504). Features of lesion texture and symmetry are derived (step 506) as are measures of categorical symmetry within the lesion (step 508).