Patent ID: 7457659
Filing Date: 2008-11-25
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
1. A method for examining skin of a living human, comprising: providing a scan unit stand including two side walls, a positioning unit which is carried on the side walls and which fixes the human between the side walls in a pre-specified examination position, and a base plate on which the human places his/her feet to position themselves for examination, the base plate attached to the side walls, the positioning unit further including automatically adjustable supports which are positioned for contacting the human's back, stomach, or head area; recording an image of an area of the skin by at least one recording element movably located on the scan unit stand; illuminating evenly the area of the skin by a light source while the image is being recorded, wherein the light source is movably located on the scan unit stand; providing the image to an image evaluation unit; analyzing the image via the image evaluation unit for a suspect skin mark; using an electronic pattern recognition which is based on a pre-specified selection rule to identify the suspect skin mark; determining a location of the suspect skin mark by the image evaluation unit; and indicating the location of the suspect skin mark by a beam of light projected onto the skin by the light source, automatically adjusting the supports via a drive regulator which concurrently controls movement of the at least one movable recording element to provide coordinated movement between the human and the at least one movable recording element as an aid in arranging the human in the appropriate pre-specified position.