CN-122003215-A - Light-based hair or skin treatment

Abstract

An intense pulsed light IPL system configured to deliver IPL light to a user's skin and comprising a handheld IPL device having a motion sensor configured to sense motion of the IPL device and a processor (which may be part of the handheld device or remote or partially remote and partially in the handheld device) configured to process the motion sensor output and a timing signal related to timing of delivery of a flash by a light source of the IPL device. The processor determines a step size of movement of the IPL device between flashes delivered by the light sources based on the motion sensor output and the timing signal and generates feedback information to the user related to the determined step size. This information is used to guide the user in using the IPL device most effectively.

Inventors

• M. Van Zufen
• H. A. Kinma
• I.C.M. Fensenberg
• M.Y. Jansen
• L .bang
• S. I. Neto
• J. W.F. South Gilman

Assignees

• 皇家飞利浦有限公司

Dates

Publication Date

20260508

Application Date

20241003

Priority Date

20231013

Claims (15)

1. 1. An IPL system for delivering IPL light to a user's skin during IPL treatment, comprising: an IPL device (10), the IPL device comprising: A light source (16); A light delivery window (18); A controller (20) configured for controlling the light source to deliver a flash to the light delivery window and for reporting a timing of delivering the flash by the light source as a flash timing, and A motion sensor (22) configured to sense motion of the IPL device and provide a motion sensor output related to the sensed motion of the IPL device; A processor (20) configured to process the motion sensor output provided by the motion sensor and the flash timing reported by the controller, and An output interface (24; 30), Wherein the processor (20) is configured to: Deriving a step size of movement of the IPL device between the first and second flashes delivered by the light source based on the motion sensor output provided by the motion sensor between the first and second flashes delivered and the flash timing reported by the controller in relation to the timing of the first and second flashes delivered, and The output interface is controlled to provide feedback information to the user regarding the step size derived by the processor.
2. 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor (20) is configured to assume that the IPL device has zero movement during delivery of the flash.
3. 3. The system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the processor (20) is configured to control the output interface to provide user guidance regarding the correct amount of movement of the IPL device between flashes to achieve skin coverage.
4. 4. The system of any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the IPL device comprises a skin detection sensor (26), wherein the processor (20) is further configured to detect when the IPL device is placed on the skin based on an output of the skin detection sensor.
5. 5. The system of claim 4, wherein the processor (20) is configured to control the output interface to provide user guidance regarding one or more of: During movement of the IPL device between flashes, correct application of the light delivery window to the skin; during movement of the IPL device between flashes, the light delivery window is properly oriented with respect to the skin; a small enough movement of the user during the IPL treatment.
6. 6. The system of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the processor (20) is configured to: Deriving a 3D linear acceleration by removing a gravitational component from the motion sensor output provided by the motion sensor between the delivered first and second flashes; Assuming that the IPL device has zero movement during the delivery of the first and second flashes, integrating the 3D linear acceleration to derive a 3D speed; The 3D speed is integrated to derive the step size of the movement of the IPL device between the first and second flashes delivered by the light source.
7. 7. The system of claim 6, wherein the processor is further configured to provide the derived step size to a machine learning algorithm to obtain a refined step size estimate.
8. 8. The system of any of claims 1 to 7, wherein the motion sensor (22) comprises a 6-axis inertial monitoring unit, IMU.
9. 9. The system according to any one of claims 1 to 8, further comprising a further motion sensor configured for detecting a motion of the IPL device relative to the skin of the user.
10. 10. A method of processing a motion sensing signal and a flash timing signal obtained using an IPL device (10) during IPL therapy, the method comprising: receiving the motion sensing signal from a motion sensor (22) of the IPL device, the motion sensing signal being related to a motion of the IPL device sensed by the motion sensor; Receiving the flash timing signal from a controller (20) of the IPL device, the controller (20) being configured to control a light source (16) of the IPL device to deliver a flash, the flash timing signal being related to a timing of the delivery of the flash by the light source; Deriving a step size of movement of the IPL device between a first flash and a second flash delivered by the light source based on the motion sensing signal received from the motion sensor between the delivered first flash and the second flash and the flash timing signal received from the controller related to the timing of the delivered first flash and the second flash, and A control output interface (24, 30) provides feedback information to the user regarding the step size derived.
11. 11. The method of claim 10, comprising: the IPL device (10) is assumed to have zero movement during the delivery of the flash.
12. 12. The method according to claim 10 or 11, comprising: Controlling the output interface (24, 30) to provide user guidance regarding the correct amount of movement of the IPL device (10) between flashes to achieve skin coverage, and/or A skin contact detection signal obtained using the IPL device (10) during the IPL treatment is received and the output interface is controlled to provide user guidance regarding the correct application of the light delivery window (18) of the IPL device to the skin during movement of the IPL device between flashes.
13. 13. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 12, comprising: Deriving a 3D linear acceleration by removing a gravitational component from the motion sensing signal received from the motion sensor (22) between the delivered first flash and the second flash; -integrating the 3D linear acceleration to derive a 3D velocity assuming that the IPL device (10) has zero movement during the delivery of the first and second flashes; The 3D speed is integrated to derive the step size of the movement of the IPL device between the first and second flashes delivered by the light source (16).
14. 14. The method of claim 13, further comprising providing the derived step size to a machine learning algorithm to obtain a refined step size estimate.
15. 15. A computer program comprising computer program code adapted to implement the method of any one of claims 10 to 14 when the program is run on a computer.

Description

Light-based hair or skin treatment Technical Field The present invention relates to hair or skin treatment devices, in particular to intense pulsed light IPL devices. Background Light-based epilators are well known for epilation. Hair dehaders or epilators are used by people to remove unwanted hair. Typical target areas for women are the face, armpits, arms, legs, bikini line and body. Men also use light-based epilators on the chest and back. The light-based epilation device is based on a filtered output of a flash, called intense pulsed light or IPL. IPL devices also have the advantage of combining various skin treatments with a depilatory mode. It is known to provide IPL devices with associated applications (apps) for providing guiding features. When the IPL device is first used, it may require the user to measure the length of their body part (e.g., leg) and then calculate the number of flashes required (based on the treatment window width). After this, the application asks the user to count the actual number of flashes of one stroke (stroke) and then report the percentage of coverage. This guiding method is not considered to be very "intelligent" as it involves user input to calculate coverage. This requires some effort by the user (e.g., taking a tape), which can be prohibitive for many users. More intelligent implementations of length measurement and flash count methods have been proposed. For example, it is possible to measure the length of the leg using a photograph and automatically count the flashing by analyzing the sound emitted by the device. All this is possible through the application of machine learning techniques. However, this still requires the user to change their normal routine significantly, so this still requires more user interaction than might be acceptable. Furthermore, these methods only give an overall (average) coverage for each treatment stroke and cannot detect which coverage on the body part is good or bad. It would be of interest to enable a user to implement automatic step size measurements using a sensor. Measuring the actual step size between each flash using a sensor (or averaging over several flashes) will allow for a guiding concept that requires less user interaction and will enable finer granularity feedback about the performance over the treatment stroke length. Disclosure of Invention The invention is defined by the claims. According to an example of one aspect of the invention, there is provided an IPL system for delivering IPL light to the skin of a user during IPL treatment, comprising: an IPL device, the IPL device comprising: A light source; A light delivery window; A controller configured for controlling the light source to deliver the flash to the light delivery window and for reporting a timing of delivering the flash by the light source as a flash timing, and A motion sensor configured to sense motion of the IPL device and provide a motion sensor output related to the sensed motion of the IPL device; A processor configured to process the motion sensor output provided by the motion sensor and the flash timing reported by the controller, and An output interface, a control unit and a control unit, Wherein the processor is configured to: Deriving a step size of movement of the IPL device between the first and second flashes delivered by the light source based on a motion sensor output provided by the motion sensor between the delivered first and second flashes and a flash timing reported by the controller in relation to the timing of the delivered first and second flashes, and The output interface is controlled to provide feedback information to the user regarding the step size derived by the processor. The IPL device provides the user with information about the step size of the movement of the IPL device they apply between successive flashes of light source. That is, for a movement of the IPL device performed by the user between a first flash and a second flash delivered by the light source, the processor derives a step size of the movement after the first flash and the second flash are delivered by the light source. Preferably, the second flash may be the next flash following the first flash. Alternatively, an additional flash is delivered between the first flash and the second flash. In particular, this information relates to how well the user is performing IPL treatment using the IPL device. For example, the step size between flashes should correspond to the length of the light delivery window (in the direction of movement) in order to achieve a continuous skin coverage without gaps between consecutive flashes and without overlapping of consecutive flashes. In this way, guidance may be provided to assist the user in achieving optimal coverage, and also to improve operation of the device. For example, an IPL device has a trigger button that a user actuates to generate a flash. The user then moves the device to the next skin location to perform the next flas