Patent ID: 9668691
Date: 2017-06-06
CPC Classifications: A61B

Claim:
1. A method of determining a skin elasticity value for a person's skin, comprising: (a)—contacting two parallel metallic plates of a mechanical pinching system on a skin surface zone, recording a first thermal image of the skin surface zone that displays thermal prints of the metallic plates on skin with an infrared thermography imaging apparatus, and measuring a first distance between the two parallel metallic plates on the first thermal image, (b)—after the recording of the first thermal image, pushing at least one of the two parallel metallic plates of the mechanical deformation system toward the other in a direction that is parallel to the skin surface, so as to pinch the skin between the two parallel metallic plates, under a controlled pressure, wherein the two parallel metallic plates remain parallel during the pushing, (c)—releasing the controlled pressure, (d)—after releasing the controlled pressure, recording a second thermal image of the skin surface zone that displays thermal prints of the metallic plates on skin with the infrared thermography imaging apparatus, and measuring a second distance between the two parallel metallic plates on the second thermal image, and (e)—determining a skin elasticity value associated with an elastic recovery of the skin, said skin elasticity value corresponding to the ratio between the second distance and the first distance.