KR-20260067524-A - Toenail Disease Assessment and Monitoring System

Abstract

The present invention relates to a nail disease judgment and monitoring system, comprising: an input unit for receiving control command data from a user; a lighting unit for illuminating light; a camera unit for photographing a nail; a control unit that controls the operation of the lighting unit to achieve an illuminance level set according to the control command data input to the input unit, analyzes the nail image captured by the camera unit to determine a nail disease or outputs an analysis result including the degree of progression of the nail disease; a storage unit for storing analysis result data analyzed by the control unit; and a display unit for displaying the analysis result data according to the control of the control unit. According to the present invention, there is an effect of easily determining toenail diseases such as athlete's foot and ingrown toenails by analyzing toenail images.

Inventors

• 신준
• 홍완기

Assignees

• 국립강릉원주대학교산학협력단

Dates

Publication Date

20260513

Application Date

20241106

Claims (9)

1. Input unit for receiving control command data from a user; Lighting unit for illuminating light; Camera unit for photographing the claw; A control unit that controls the operation of the lighting unit to achieve an illuminance level set according to control command data input to the input unit, and analyzes a nail image captured by the camera unit to determine a nail disease or outputs an analysis result including the degree of progression of the nail disease; A storage unit for storing analysis result data analyzed by the above control unit; and A display unit for displaying analysis result data according to the control of the above-mentioned control unit A nail disease diagnosis and monitoring system including
2. In claim 1, The above camera unit is positioned to photograph the claw from above, and A nail disease judgment and monitoring system characterized by the above-described control unit analyzing the color of a nail image captured by the camera unit to determine nail fungus disease or outputting an analysis result including the degree of progression of nail fungus disease.
3. In claim 2, A nail disease diagnosis and monitoring system characterized by the above-described control unit analyzing the color of a nail image captured by the camera unit by decomposing the nail image into pixel units and extracting and analyzing RGB values.
4. In claim 3, A nail disease diagnosis and monitoring system characterized by the above-described control unit analyzing the color of a nail image captured by the camera unit by decomposing the nail image into pixel units, extracting RGB values, and calculating the average value and standard deviation of each color using the extracted RGB values.
5. In claim 4, A toenail disease judgment and monitoring system characterized by the above-described control unit analyzing the color of a toenail image captured by the camera unit, comparing the past average value and standard deviation stored in the storage unit, and evaluating that the toenail fungus disease is improving if the average value increases and the standard deviation decreases over time, and evaluating that the toenail fungus disease is worsening if the opposite is true.
6. In claim 2, The above camera unit is positioned to photograph the claw from the front, and A toenail disease judgment and monitoring system characterized by the above-described control unit analyzing the angle of the toenail in a toenail image captured by the camera unit to determine an ingrown toenail or outputting an analysis result including the degree of progression of the ingrown toenail.
7. In claim 6, A toenail disease diagnosis and monitoring system characterized by the above-described control unit analyzing the angle of a toenail in a toenail image captured by the camera unit by measuring the angle formed by a straight line connecting the left end and the right end of the toenail in the toenail image and a straight line connecting the left end of the toenail and the top end of the toenail.
8. In claim 7, A nail disease judgment and monitoring system characterized by the above-described control unit outputting an analysis result that determines an ingrown toenail when the angle of the toenail exceeds a predetermined threshold.
9. In claim 8, A toenail disease judgment and monitoring system characterized by the above-described control unit analyzing the angle of the toenail in a toenail image captured by the camera unit, comparing it with the past angle of the toenail stored in the storage unit, and evaluating that the ingrown toenail is improving if the angle of the toenail decreases over time, and evaluating that the ingrown toenail is worsening if the opposite is true.

Description

Toenail Disease Assessment and Monitoring System The present invention relates to a technology for determining and monitoring toenail diseases, and more specifically, to a technology for determining and monitoring toenail diseases by analyzing toenail images. This project (result) is the result of the Phase 3 Leading University Industry-Academic Cooperation Project (LINC 3.0), funded by the Ministry of Education and the National Research Foundation of Korea. According to statistics from the National Health Insurance Service, it has been confirmed that the number of patients suffering from 'ingrown toenails,' commonly known as 'ingrown nails,' has exceeded 200,000. Ingrown toenails are caused by factors such as fungal infections, obesity, wearing ill-fitting shoes, and genetic reasons. In addition to surgical treatment at medical institutions, they are managed using ingrown toenail correctors at nail salons. However, to correct the ingrown toenail and prevent recurrence, consistent care must be provided for 6 months to 1 year, following the toenail growth cycle. Nevertheless, many people with ingrown toenails tend to seek short-term corrective effects. If they cannot directly assess the degree of improvement through the correction, distrust regarding the effectiveness of the treatment grows, leading to a problem where consistent corrective care is not maintained. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of a nail disease judgment and monitoring system according to one embodiment of the present invention. Figure 2 illustrates a toenail color analysis function in a toenail disease judgment and monitoring system according to one embodiment of the present invention. Figure 3 illustrates nail color analysis data in a nail disease judgment and monitoring system according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is an example of a color analysis screen displayed on a display unit in a nail disease judgment and monitoring system according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 5 and 6 are screen examples illustrating a function for measuring the angle of a toenail in a toenail disease judgment and monitoring system according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 is an illustrative diagram for explaining the function of measuring the angle of a nail in a nail disease judgment and monitoring system according to one embodiment of the present invention. The present invention is capable of various modifications and may have various embodiments, and specific embodiments are illustrated in the drawings and described in detail. However, this is not intended to limit the present invention to specific embodiments, and it should be understood that it includes all modifications, equivalents, and substitutions that fall within the spirit and scope of the invention. The terms used in this application are used merely to describe specific embodiments and are not intended to limit the invention. The singular expression includes the plural expression unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. In this application, terms such as "comprising" or "having" are intended to indicate the presence of the features, numbers, steps, actions, components, parts, or combinations thereof described in the specification, and should be understood as not precluding the existence or addition of one or more other features, numbers, steps, actions, components, parts, or combinations thereof. Unless otherwise defined, all terms used herein, including technical or scientific terms, have the same meaning as generally understood by those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. Terms such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries should be interpreted as having a meaning consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant technology, and should not be interpreted in an ideal or overly formal sense unless explicitly defined in this application. Furthermore, in the description referring to the attached drawings, identical components are assigned the same reference numeral regardless of drawing symbols, and redundant descriptions thereof are omitted. In describing the present invention, if it is determined that a detailed description of related prior art could unnecessarily obscure the essence of the present invention, such detailed description is omitted. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of a nail disease judgment and monitoring system according to one embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, the nail disease judgment and monitoring system of the present invention includes an input unit (110), a lighting unit (120), a camera unit (130), a control unit (140), a storage unit (150), and a display unit (160). The input unit (110) serves to receive control command data from the user. In the present invention, the input unit (110) can be implemented in various ways, such as a keypad, a jog shuttle, a point stick, or a touchscreen. Th