Validation of the Visia Camera System for skin analysis through assessment of the correlations among the three offered measurements - the percentile, feature count and absolute score - as well as the three capture perspectives, from the left, front and right.

OBJECTIVE

Validation of the Visia Camera System in terms of providing data on various skin aspects via the establishment of the correlations among the obtained measurements - the percentile, feature count and absolute score.

METHOD

A large data cloud was analysed statistically following a clinical study. In the study, facial images of nineteen women were obtained at two different time points, before and three months after following a skin care routine. Objective analysis was provided by the Visia Camera System, which provided measurements firstly as percentiles, secondly as feature counts and thirdly as absolute scores on eight different skin aspects. The eight skin criteria were spots, wrinkles, skin texture, pores, UV spots, brown spots, red marks and porphyrins. Data on the facial skin were gathered from three different perspectives, namely the left, front and right views. The correlations between pairs of the three obtained measurements, i.e., the percentile, the feature count and the absolute score, were calculated. Further, the correlation coefficients for the three capture perspectives, from the left, front and right, were calculated. Data from the two time points, i.e., before and after application of the skin care cosmetic line were analysed. The statistical analyses were conducted using R (R Core Team 2016).

RESULTS

There was a high level of correlation among the three offered measurement methods. From 144 calculations of the correlations 128 (88.9%) were statistically significant (p<0.05). The correlation coefficients in the vast majority of cases pointed to very clear correlations between the two examined variables. In particular, 50% of the absolute values of these correlations were above 0.945. The few insignificant results were in UV spots and wrinkles. All three methods used to measure the data on skin aspects, i.e., the percentiles, the feature count and the absolute score, served equally well when making comparisons between the two time points. When examining the correlation coefficients for the three capture perspectives, i.e., left, front and right views, their percentages of significant results were found to be only marginally different. Of the 144 examined correlations, 121 were found to be statistically significant (84%). The average correlation coefficient was r=0.74, which pointed to a very clear correlation between the data. The few insignificant results were in wrinkles, UV spots and spots. The Visia Camera System was found to be an objective tool with which to examine the effects of a cosmeceutical skin care regime. However, there was a learning curve associated with the application of this system.

CONCLUSION

The Visia Camera System was successfully validated by investigation of the correlations between measurement methods and capture perspectives. The camera system can not only serve as a tool with which to visualise, provide communications concerning or sell a skin care product, but it can also provide objective data for clinical follow-up studies. Thus, investigations into which skin aspect can be improved the most by a cosmetic product line are possible.