Abstract
A method is proposed for visualizing melanin masses in pigmented regions of the epidermis. A multispectral image of the pigmentation is obtained at dominant wavelengths of 400, 550 and 700nm and the luminance of each pixel is converted to a spectral reflectance. Since the spectral reflectance can be expressed linearly, spectral reflectance was then determined in 10nm steps (41 different wavelengths) in the visible region (380-780nm). The spectral reflectance of pixels at each wavelength was reconverted to luminance to reconstruct a single multispectral image. Then, the multispectral image at each of the 41 wavelengths was converted to a binary image, and the binary images were laminated into a single composite image to provide visualization of the melanin masses that cause pigmentation in the epidermis. Using this method, it is possible to obtain three-dimensional visualization of melanin masses that cause pigmentation in freckles, chloasmas, dark circles and moles, and to visualize changes in melanin distribution in the epidermis following suntan-induced pigmentation.
