Digital Photography for Time-Lapse Monitoring of Skin Lesions

 

C. Harmon, K. N. Kutulakos and B. C. Madden

Annual Meeting of the Society of Investigative Dermatology, 2000

 

Abstract:  We have developed a computer-based system that employs image analysis software to monitor changes in a population of lesions on a patient’s body surface. Time-lapse monitoring of the skin brings forth a new class of diagnostic imaging tools in which a time-lapse digital video of an evolving lesion or of a lesion population, rather than just a single photograph, is used for quantitative treatment assessment and diagnosis. Time-lapse skin monitoring is performed by first acquiring over a period of days, weeks, or months multiple digital photographs of the same, physician-designated skin region on a patient. To handle differences in the patient’s pose or the camera’s position during each photography session, our computer system automatically registers the acquired photographs so that identical locations in the photographs correspond to identical locations on the skin.

 

The system consists of a PC and a digital camera and is packaged in a Windows interface. This interface guides the clinician in the acquisition of the digital photographs, provides support for the identification of skin landmarks such as moles to aid registration of acquired images, and for their storage and archiving. Our monitoring system currently supports the automatic detection of changes in a monitored lesion population, i.e., identifying lesions that appeared or disappeared between two consecutive photography sessions. Future work includes functionalities that automatically detecting changes in coloration and size of a single lesion that appears in a sequence of time-lapse photographs.