Application of Fractal Dimension Estimation Algorithms to Evaluation of Human Skin State

Abstract

Fractal dimension estimation is often used for texture analysis as the fractal dimension correlates to a high degree with perceived surface roughness. It has been used to quantify the structures of a wide range of objects in biology and medicine. This study used fractal dimension estimation to analyze skin texture images and investigated its application to skin state evaluation. This estimation could be helpful in extracting human features and in detecting a wide range of skin diseases. A method was developed for calculating the fractal dimension of skin that uses a camera with lenses of different magnification. A series of skin images is taken at magnifications corresponding to the magnification factor of a fractal set (skin), and the number of objects (skin cells) in each image are considered to be the number of self-similar pieces of the fractal set.