Paper
16 March 2020 Impact of chromophores on colour appearance in a computational skin model
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
Early diagnosis of skin cancer offers the patient more favorable treatment options. Color fidelity of skin images is a major concern for dermatologists as adoption of digital dermatoscopes is increasing rapidly. Accurate color depiction of the lesion and surrounding skin are vital in diagnostic evaluation of a lesion.

We previously introduced VCT-Derma, a pipeline for dermatological Virtual Clinical Trials (VCTs) including detailed and flexible models of human skin and lesions, which represent the patient in the entire dermatoscopy-based diagnostic process. However, those initial models of skin and lesions did not properly account for tissue colors.

Our new skin model accounts for tissue color appearance by incorporating chromophores (e.g., melanin, blood) into the tissue model, and simulating the optical properties of the various skin layers. The physical properties of the skin and lesion were selected from clinically plausible values. The model and simulated dermatoscope images were created in open modelling software, assuming a linear camera model. We have assumed ambient white lighting, with a 6mm distance to the camera.

Our model of color appearance was characterised by comparing the brightness of the lesion to its depth. The brightness of the lesion is compared through the variability of the mean gray values of a cropped region around the lesion. We compare two skin models, one without extensive chromophore content and one with. Our preliminary evaluation of increasing chromophore content shows promise based on the results presented here. Further refinement and validation of the model is ongoing.
© (2020) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Varun Vasudev, Lode De Paepe, Andrew D. A. Maidment, Tom Kimpe, Ljiljana Platisa, Wilfried Philips, and Predrag R. Bakic "Impact of chromophores on colour appearance in a computational skin model", Proc. SPIE 11312, Medical Imaging 2020: Physics of Medical Imaging, 1131232 (16 March 2020); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2548962
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KEYWORDS
Skin

Chromophores

Blood

RGB color model

Melanoma

Cameras

Clinical trials

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