Bor-Wen YANG, Li-Ming CHAN¹, and Kai-Cheng WANG¹

Department of Opto-Electronic System Engineering, Ming-Hsin University of Science and Technology, Hsinchu, Taiwan 30401, R.O.C.
¹Institute of Electronic Engineering, Ming-Hsin University of Science and Technology, Hsinchu, Taiwan 30401, R.O.C.

(Received July 14, 2008; Accepted February 12, 2009)

In the present cosmetic market, the skin image obtained from a hand-held camera is two-dimensional (2-D). Due to insufficient penetration, only the skin surface can be detected, and thus phenomena in the dermis cannot be observed. To take the place of the conventional 2D camera, a new hand-held imaging system is proposed for three-dimensional (3-D) skin imaging. Featuring non-invasiveness, optical coherence tomography (OCT) has become one of the popular medical imaging techniques. The dermal images shown in OCT-related reports were mainly single-colored because of the use of a monotonic light source. With three original-colored beams applied in OCT, a full-colored image can be derived for dermatology. The penetration depth of the system ranges from 0.43 to 0.78 mm, sufficient for imaging of main tissues in the dermis. Colorful and non-invasive perspectives of deep dermal structure help to advance skin science, dermatology and cosmetology.

Key words: skin, imaging, optical coherence tomography, medical imaging, dermatology