A vibrotactile stimulation device intended to be applied against a body environment (MC) to be stimulated and comprising a vibrating effector suitable for applying, to said environment, pulses of mechanical vibrational energy, and a controller controlling the effector according to stimulation rules. The device is remarkable in that it further comprises vibration detector suitable for being exposed to the body environment in order to receive a part of the vibrational energy transmitted to said means by said environment during the application of the pulses of vibrational energy, and determine a transmission characteristic of the vibrational energy between the effector and the environment to be stimulated, said vibration detector being linked to the controller. An application to improving the efficacy of body stimulation in combating sleep apnoea is also disclosed.

A method of measuring a characteristic of a skin, including varying an air pressure in a chamber positioned adjacent to a skin, in which the chamber has an opening that exposes the skin to changes in the air pressure in the chamber. A plurality of measurements of surface profiles of the skin are made over a period of time as the surface profile of the skin varies in response to changes in the air pressure.

The present invention pertains to methods of determining where, on the skin, a diagnostic, therapeutic, or cosmetic agent is likely to be most effectively applied (e.g., injected), and to methods for monitoring a patient after such an agent has been administered. The monitoring can produce information useful in determining whether a diagnostic, therapeutic (e.g., surgical), or cosmetic regime should be initiated, continued, continued in a modified fashion, or terminated (e.g., for a brief or prolonged period of time). The methods can be repeated periodically and use a non-invasive, in vivo form of digital image speckle correlation (DISC) to track deformation of the skin.

The present disclosure provides a device for evaluating a mechanical property of a material. The device comprises a sensing layer that has a contact surface for contacting a surface area of the material. The sensing layer has a property or dimension that is pressure sensitive. The device also comprises a detector arranged to detect electromagnetic radiation that propagates through at least the sensing layer. The device is arranged such that, when the contact surface of the sensing layer is in contact with the surface area of the material and a load is applied on at least a portion of the surface area of the material, the detected electromagnetic radiation can be used to determine stress within a portion of the sensing layer, the determined stress being indicative of the mechanical property of the material.

The present invention pertains to methods of determining where, on the skin, a diagnostic, therapeutic, or cosmetic agent is likely to be most effectively applied (e.g., injected), and to methods for monitoring a patient after such an agent has been administered. The monitoring can produce information useful in determining whether a diagnostic, therapeutic (e.g., surgical), or cosmetic regime should be initiated, continued, continued in a modified fashion, or terminated (e.g., for a brief or prolonged period of time). The methods can be repeated periodically and use a non-invasive, in vivo form of digital image speckle correlation (DISC) to track deformation of the skin.

A wrinkle care support device includes: a wrinkle change detector that detects a change made in a wrinkle after occurrence of the wrinkle, the wrinkle having occurred in skin by provision of predetermined stimulation; a wrinkle care information determiner that determines, based on the detected change, user presentation information relating to wrinkle care; and an information outputter that outputs the determined user presentation information. Note that the wrinkle care support device may further include: an image obtainer that obtains an image where the skin is photographed; and a wrinkle detector that detects the wrinkle from the obtained image. The detection of the change may include a detection of a wrinkle disappearing time starting from when the predetermined stimulation is provided until the wrinkle is no longer detected.

A wrinkle detection apparatus is an apparatus for detecting a wrinkle area of skin included in an image. The wrinkle detection apparatus includes a first threshold processing unit that detects a first edge area included in the image by performing first threshold processing for comparing a gradient value that indicates a degree of change in pixel values in the image with a first threshold, a second threshold processing unit that detects a second edge area included in the image by performing second threshold processing for comparing the gradient value with a second threshold, and an edge selection processing unit that determines a wrinkle area based on an overlapping area in which the first edge area and the second edge area are overlapped.

Described embodiments provide a system and method for measuring surface deformation and strain using digital image correlation of a surface of a test object. A data acquisition system acquires images of the surface. The surface has a unique surface pattern to facilitate image acquisition. The images are grouped into one or more image sets. Three dimensional image correlation is performed on each of the image sets to determine deformation and strain data. The deformation and strain data from the image sets are stitched into one dataset. Principal strains and lines of non-extension (LoNEs) directions are determined. One or more LoNEs streamlines and lines of maximum and minimum extensions are determined. Visualizations for the strain magnitudes, LoNE streamlines, maximum and minimum extension streamlines are generated in three dimensions.

A wireless pressure ulcer alert dressing system for warning a patient or caregiver that soft tissue pressure or health condition has exceeded some predetermined level that over time would necessitate moving the patient to prevent or at least reduce a risk of soft tissue damage. The dressing assembly is adapted to be applied to or near a surface of the patient's body and generate electrical outputs corresponding to soft tissue pressure and other health characteristics sensed at the surface. The dressing assembly generates output signals based on the electrical outputs and corresponding to whether or not the soft tissue pressure has exceeded a predetermined pressure level during the preselected time period. The dressing assembly includes a pocket formed therein for removable, secured and protected insertion of a variety of different sensors such as multiple pressure sensors.

Systems and methods are provided for employing informational models trained using the Autoprogressive Algorithm to learn the mechanical behavior of biological materials using a sparse sampling of force and displacement measurements. The constitutive matrix normally used to solve the inverse problem is replaced with ANNs.