Cosmetics - Breuckmann GmbH - topometrische 3d Scanner

Reliable Analysis of Wrinkles in 3D

The in-vivo-3D scanner dermaTOP-blue has been specifically optimised to provide precise measurement and examination of human skin for dermatological and cosmetic applications without the need of using facial replicas.

The system is succefully applied in the effectiveness analysis of anti-ageing, anti-wrinkle or skin-smoothing products. In these tests, the smoothing effect is checked by an analysis of the crow's feet
(wrinkle area in the corner of the left and right eye).

Objectives and Advantages of 3D-Analysis

In the past and partly up to present, it was common practice to examine changes in wrinkles with 2D image evaluation tools. With advancing technology and making use of
3D image processing, not only the profile roughness parameters of a skin area can be examined, but also the volume changes of the wrinkles can be taken into account to draw conclusions of the product’s effectiveness.

Customers

The 3D approach to analyse the changes in wrinkles analysis is successfully applied in:

research and development in the cosmetic industry for end products
research and development in the manufacturing industry of active ingredients
for skin care products
independent test laboratories verifying the effectiveness of skin care products

Measuring Principle

Topometry: imaging metrology principle based on structured light projection; combination of GrayCode- und Phaseshift technology.

Measuring System

For the wrinkle analysis application, a Breuckmann dermaTOP-blue with a field of view of 50 mm diagonal and a volume is 40 x 35 x 20 mm (width, height, depth) is applied. The size of the measuring field is usually slightly larger than the actual area of examination, which is typically reduced to an inspection area of 20 x 20 mm.

Specification and Challenges

To analyse the effectiveness of antiwrinkle and skin tightening products or ingredients, long-term studies are required. A professional measuring station is employed to ensure
the reproducibility of the propand's positioning in several measurements over a longer period of time. This system has been individually developed for this application; the station meets the requirements of a stable re-positioning of propands. In addition, intelligent 3D alignment functions in the software make sure that the for anaysis relevant scan area remains constant.

Data aquisition, visualisation and analysis of data are performed by dermaTOP software, based on Breuckmann's program OPTOCAT. Intelligent data post-processing functions provide high-quality 3D results which are saved in SDF format.

For the final 3D evaluation of the examined wrinkle(s), the proband's individual face shape is removed by subtracting a seventh order polynomial fit. In addition, the user has the option to perform a spatial separation between main wrinkles and micro-relief information by using a cut-off filter with 1 mm.

To conclusively assess the wrinkle changes, two different approaches to analyse the 3d data are employed:

Evaluation of the wrinkles' vertical amplitude
Evaluation of surface, volume, circumference, mean and
maximum height of the wrinkle(s)

Result and Summary

To illustrate the sensitivity of the analysis equipment, the following example shows the wrinkle change caused by an externally imposed change in temperature.

The propand is stabilised under constant temperature conditions for ten minutes and the T0 measurement is taken for the baseline. Thereafter, a cold pack is placed on the right side crow’s feet area for one minute. After the cooling process, the following consecutive measurements are taken: T1 within one minute, T2 after five minutes,
T3 after ten minutes.

This example demonstrates that a separate evaluation of wrinkle parameters as volume or wrinkle depth does not suffice. To correctly analyse and determine the real effectiveness of a product, the relation of the parameters has to be evaluated. As shown in the example above, it is very easy to achieve a short-term change in the wrinkle depth without changing the wrinkle volume, because the wrinkle area has contracted due to the cold. To conclusively demonstrate the effectiveness of appropriate active ingredients, it has to be proved that not only the wrinkle depth but also the wrinkle volume is reduced by treatment with a skin care product.