Abstract
A novel in vivo approach is described that provides large area mapping of the mechanical properties of the skin in
human patients. Such information is important in the understanding of skin health, cosmetic surgery[1], aging, and
impacts of sun exposure.
Currently, several methods have been developed to estimate the local biomechanical properties of the skin, including the
use of a physical biopsy of local areas of the skin (in vitro methods) [2, 3, and 4], and also the use of non-invasive
methods (in vivo) [5, 6, and 7]. All such methods examine localized areas of the skin.
Our approach examines the local elastic properties via the generation of field displacement maps of the skin created
using time-sequence imaging [9] with 2D digital imaging correlation (DIC) [10]. In this approach, large areas of the
skin are reviewed rapidly, and skin displacement maps are generated showing the contour maps of skin deformation.
These maps are then used to precisely register skin images for purposes of diagnostic comparison.
This paper reports on our mapping and registration approach, and demonstrates its ability to accurately measure the skin
deformation through a described nulling interpolation process. The result of local translational DIC alignment is
compared using this interpolation process. The effectiveness of the approach is reported in terms of residual RMS, image
entropy measures, and differential segmented regional errors.