Novel Digital Dermoscopy Device
Our partner, a Hungarian SME has created a novel digital dermoscopy device and analyzing software connected to it. The product was developed to examine pigmented skin lesions and to diagnose their malignancy automatically. This purpose is inspired by the fact that skin cancer tumors (like Melanoma Malignum) belong to the most rapidly increasing cancers in the world. They are interested in a license agreement. Innovation of the product: The system can be divided into two main parts. The first part is the image recording hardware. It is capable of recording still pictures, or streaming continuous video to a separate system (for example, a PC or PDA). It may be a possibility to view the live stream on an LCD, built on the hardware. With the instrument the user can get a magnified picture of the skin surface. To extract additional information, the machine illuminates the surface with polarized light in different colors. The use of the instrument is very simple and user friendly. The user has to push only one button to turn it on or off or to take pictures of the skin. The shape is ergonomic which also makes using it more pleasant. The state of the machine can be checked with an indicator lamp. One advantage is that the pictures can be transferred to an external machine via wireless. The system is very reliable and easy to maintain. If the user would like to clean the contact surface of the instrument, the component can be removed from its readily. There is a simple docking station which contains a battery recharging module. This solution extends the time of use, and therefore no manual charging is needed. The second component of the system is a software which analyzes a given image of a lesion and makes a diagnosis. The diagnostic process consists of three steps. The first task is the accurate determination of the lesion's location and border on the image. The accuracy of this segmentation step is very important because of the feature extraction step which follows. The purpose of the second step is to describe the lesion with some features. These features are computational representation of the properties which appear in ABCD rule. The ABCD rule is used by dermatologists to make their diagnoses. In the third step the program makes a decision that depends on the features and classifies the lesion as benign or malignant. The algorithm which makes this decision is based on the classification algorithms of machine learning discipline. This three-element chain contains the kind of solutions which guarantee high performance in terms of processing time and accuracy. The software was written in the Java programming language so it is a portable application which runs on many types of hardware and operating systems.
Sector: Medical Technologies
Country: Hungary
Area of Application: Potential areas of use: Typical application areas: - dermatology - cosmetics - in the solarium - use home - optional (because it may be uv, infra, polar): - law enforcement: bank note checking (by dino-lite) Typical customers: - Dermatologists - Cosmeticians - Dermatology patients
Keywords: digital dermoscopy, analytical software, dermatology, analysis
Advantages: Advantages of the technology: - Easy usage - The image recording device is able to take an image series from a pigmented skin lesion with different illuminations. Since it sends a continuous stream to an external machine, the user can make an examination in real time without needing to save the images. Therefore other type of skin lesions can be also studied - A database of patients can be easily made, which helps the users to follow the changes of their lesions. With this feature, higher accuracy recognition of many malignant diseases can be achieved - The automatic diagnosis feature allows the product to be used both by experts and untrained persons
Environmental aspects: Not Applicable
Development Status: Laboratory Model
Legal Protection: Patent
Technical specifications:
Transfer Terms: Technology Licensing , Equipment Supply , Research Partnerships
Target Countries: World Wide
Estimated cost (US$):
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Contact Person: Laser Consult Ltd (Hungary)
Address: H-6701 PO Box 1191.
City: Szeged
Country: Hungary
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