MyOwn App: A Fake App to Measure and track your skin's Health

My Own introduces a free app to support the sale of their product line of "pure, effective anti-aging skin care" products.
The app is positioned to perforrn in 3 steps:

Step1: Take your photo. The My Own app will take it from there, using facial recognition and clinical technology to measure your signs of aging. The analysis only takes a few minutes (see our comments below)

Step2: The My Own app builds a detailed map of six signs of aging: fine lines, deep wrinkles, crow's feet, age spot count and visibility. Then, every 30 days, take a new picture, and MyOwn will track your skin's progress.

Step 3: Based on your information, My Own gives you custom product recommendations, plus meaningful tips for skin care, lifestyle and overall health. It's the knowledge you need to give yourself beautiful, young looking skin that lasts"

The App is free, and only for iPhones. We are very skeptic about the quality and relevance of the entire imaging + treatment. "use the back camera for most accurate measurements"... does not make sense (how do you shoot at yourself with the back camera ?). Also, color calibration is not realistic, as "get in the best light" ... and "add white marker, shirt, headband" are just not realistic ways to create a solid and consistent assessment process.

And you need to "upload your photo" for treatment. Not sure we like that !

In any case, another good example of the interest of the convergence of technologies towards a more "personalized skin care".

Philips's Cristalize: a skin imaging service

Crystalize is a skin imaging service that helps you understand your skin and what it needs, so you can make smarter choices and get better results.

Christalize helps users to understand their unique skin. In one short consultation, the camera accurately and reliably images the skin. The images are analyzed to evaluate skin type, redness, texture and pigmentation. Based on the results, the sales consultant can recommend the products that best fit the skin type.

Crystalize is also an active Online community, where users can review their results and track their skin progress, while receiving specialized advice and peers shared experiences.

Too good to be true ? Perhaps.. as the Philips's backed-up venture did not make it from a business standpoint, stressing that the "Who Pays" remains the key question for technologies that enable "Personalized Skincare"

Light-CT™ Computed Tomography provides 2D and 3D digital images of tissue microstructure without modifying tissue

LLTech’s Light-CT™ Computed Tomography provides 2D and 3D digital images of tissue microstructure without modifying tissue.

Light-CT™ uses white light to scan beneath the surface of tissue. It does not require any tissue preparation, modification, or staining of any kind. Images are provided within minutes thanks to a non-destructive process, whereas histology (the current Gold Standard) takes several hours or days, and requires an actual slicing of the sample. The images offer a cellular resolution of 1 µm in all 3 dimensions. 3D views can be reconstructed and displayed using a standard DICOM viewer.

Light-CT™ technology produces high quality images that are comparable to histology.

The Light-CT™ scanner is an automated system. Image acquisition and calibration are automatic. Light-CT™ captures “en face” images directly using a megapixel camera and a pair of microscope objectives. Light-CT™ derives from low coherence interference microscopy. The interferometer can be displaced to step the focal plane through different depths beneath the surface to create a 3D tomographic image. “En face” capture allows Light-CT™ to operate with high lateral resolution (typically ~1µm) using medium or large aperture microscope objectives. An incoherent light source illuminates the whole field of the microscope objectives. Due to the low temporal coherence of the source, interference occurs only when the optical path lengths of the two arms of the interferometer are identical within 1µm. When a biological sample is placed under the microscope objective in the sample arm, the light reflected by the reference mirror interferes with the light reflected or backscattered by the sample structures contained in a limited volume. Real time signal processing is applied during depth exploration of the sample. The image stack is thereby optimized to allow 3D imaging.

Purpose of device: digital imaging of tissue microstructure including the border between the stratum corneum and the epidermis

Main application: medical practices

Price range: $120-$150,000

LUCID's “mole-mapping” that goes far beyond correlating one image with another

Taking dermoscopy to a whole new level, Lucid’s innovative complete imaging platform allows you to combine the power of Total Body Photography, Dermoscopy and Reflectance Confocal Microscopy to create “mole-mapping” that goes far beyond correlating one image with another.

In a single place, with data management capabilities that make it easy to find the right record, all of the images captured for a given patient are stored, archived and accessed. Lucid’s graphical interface for the patient’s imaging chart allows simple, intuitive and easy-to-access records of these critical images.

The VivaScope® 3000 is the world's first handheld reflectance confocal microscope designed specifically for clinical imaging of the skin. The VivaScope 3000’s compact configuration and flexible, handheld positioning makes it easy for the physician to acquire images of skin around the nose and ear. The small, light VivaScope 3000 is ideally suited for routine handheld use in clinical procedures. Its primary features include megapixel resolution; real-time video rate imaging; and on-instrument controls for laser power, imaging depth, image capture, and VivaStack capture.

Purpose of device: imaging of skin lesions on any body surface

Main application: medical practices

Price range: unknown