Proceedings of 1st International Symposium for Color Science and Art 2019

Effect of Fixing a Tiny Wearable Display on a Tongue Imaging
Analyzing System (TIAS) to Improve Stability of Tongue
Presentation
T.Uchida, Y.Kume, N.Nishimiya, K.Kamikura, E.Yokoyama, Y.Miyake*,
S.Tsuneyasu, T.SatohTokyo Polytechnic University, 1583 Iiyama, Atsugi, Kanagawa 243-0297, Japan
Image on tiny
wearable display(b)ABSTRACTThe tongue is said to express the condition of theentire body. Therefore, tongue diagnosis is an importantdiagnosis method in Kampo Medicine. Changes in thecolor of different parts of the tongue reflect different healthconditions. Digital tongue image capturing systems suchas the tongue image analyzing system (TIAS) are aimed
at performing diagnosis at a low cost, before theoccurrence of illness. In this study, we examined the effectof attaching a small viewer with a guide marker to a TIAS
to improve the stability of tongue presentation and theaccuracy of color evaluation.

(c)

1. INTRODUCTION
Tongue diagnosis is one of the diagnostic methods
used in Japanese traditional Kampo medicine. In Kampo
medicine, it is believed that the condition of the tongue
reflects that of the whole body. It is possible to diagnose
the physical condition of patients from various tongue
characteristics, including color, shape, wetness, tongue
coating, and texture. In addition, there are cases of tongue
diagnosis in which diagnosis is performed by looking at thecolor of the tongue after dividing it into specific areas
rather than looking at the entire tongue.
Multiple studies have reported a correlation between
the shape and color of the tongue and an individual’s
health. However, most people are unaware of how topresent their tongues and therefore require practice andguidance for proper tongue indication. We attempted toimprove tongue imaging diagnosis for the general
population by attaching a tiny monitor with a guide marker
to a tongue image analyzing system (TIAS).

Image on PC monitor

Fig. 1 (a) Photograph of TIAS using one eye of thewearable display, (b) tongue image on the wearable
display (subject person side), and (c) tongue image
indicated on the medical practitioner’s computer.
position could be adjusted by using the universal arm, as
shown in Figure 2(a). The subject could see their own
real-time tongue image, as shown in Figures 1(b) and 1(c).
2.2 Guide Maker Indication
To stabilize the tongue presentation, the guide marker(guide line) was indicated on the monitor, as shown in
Figure 2(c). The size of the guide marker is changeable tofit the subject by using the marker image set.

2. Method
2.1 Fixing a Tiny Wearable Display
We tried fixing the wearable display to the side of thedevice and used one eye to view the display, as shown in
Figure 1(a). Tongue image on the wearable display(subject person side) and tongue image indicated on the
medical practitioner’s computer is shown in Figures 1(b)and 1(c) respectively. Since the position of the eyes of theexaminee differs from one individual to another, the（c） with gu* Director of Tokyo Polytechnic University andCenter for Frontier Medical Engineering, Chiba University

Fig. 2 (a) Image of TIAS for a human participant, (b)tongue image without a guide marker, and (c) tongue
image with a guide marker.

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Proceedings of 1st International Symposium for Color Science and Art 2019
2.3 Setting for Shooting Three Types of TongueImagesBy using the tiny wearable display shown in Figure 1(a),we confirmed the effectiveness of the display. Images of
the tongue of eight subjects were obtained with andwithout the tiny display, and further, with and without themarker as shown in Figures 1(b) and 1(c). These settings
and abbreviations are summarized in Table 1.

To calculate the temporal fluctuation of the size of thetongue, standard deviation / average = coefficient ofvariation was obtained with size. Table 2-1, 2-2 includes
the coefficient of variation (CV) of each with respect tochanges in tongue height and width, respectively.

Table 1. Setting for shooting three types of tongue images.

Finally, we examined stability of tongue color at a fixedpoint. For example, we chose participant F because ofappropriate CV improvement with device. Figure 4 (i) (w/o,Setting
No.
(i)
(ii)
(iii)

Tiny
monitorwithout
without
with

Guide makerindication on monitor
without
withwithTo compare the results of three types of setting (i) ~ (iii),
focusing on CV in the height and width of the tongue, itshows clearly that there is little CV in the case of (w, w).

Abbreviation(w/o, w/o)
(w/o, w)
(w, w)(i) (w/o, w/o)

The tongue indication could be influenced by familiarityand experience with the process. Therefore, images werefirst obtained with glasses for four subjects (subjects A–D),
and then images were obtained without glasses for thefour remaining subjects (subjects E–H).
2.4 Evaluation for Improving Stability of Tongue
Presentation
Tongue shapes were shot every ~10 s over a total of
100 s. By using these data, at first the part of the tongue
was selected. After that, we measured each tongue’swidth, tongue height, and integrated tongue area. All
imaging processes were achieved by Photoshop CC.

(ii) (w, w/o)(iii) (w, w)w/o), (ii) (w, w/o), and (iii) (w, w) indicated tongue color of F
at CIE Chromaticity Diagram.

3. Results and Discussion
Figure 3(a) shows one of the tongue images, and Figure3(b) shows the changes in tongue shape over 100 s.

Fig. 4 Tongue color of F at CIE Chromaticity Diagramwith each setting (i)~(iii)
In case of (iii) (w, w) in Figure 4, it showed the fluctuationof tongue color to be minimum. Therefore, location stability
is effective for measurement of tongue color at fixed point.
4. Conclusion
We confirmed that the tiny wearable display with guidemarker indication is a useful device for TIAS. By using thedevice, the stability of the subject's tongue movement
improved. The greatest advantage is that the subject gains
a sense of security during imaging of the tongue. Theseevaluations include many subjective factors, but further
studies are planned using objective indicators of thehuman body.

(a)(b)
Fig. 3 (a) One of the tongue images and (b) changes intongue shape over 100 s.
Table 2-1

coefficient of variation of tongue hight (%)
Averageof A~HParticipant

AB

CDEFGH

2.9

6.2

2.6

7.6

2.0

4.9

3.8

4.5

4.3

4.0

8.0

7.6

4.5

1.7

4.1

2.4

1.3

4.2

3.8

4.6

5.3

4.8

2.1

3.0

2.6

3.5

3.7

(i)

（w/o, w/o)(ii)

（w, w/o）

(iii)

(w,w)
Table 2-2

coefficient of variation of tongue width (%)

Participant

ABCDEFGH

6.6

2.6

3.0

4.7

1.21.7

2.1

1.3

4.0

3.6

4.2 11.2

1.5

1.6

1.2

1.4

3.6

2.0

1.4

3.2

0.8

0.6

1.5

0.8

1.6

(i)

（w/o, w/o)(ii)

（w, w/o）

(iii)

(w,w)

2.7

5. REFERENCES[1] T. Uchida, K. Yoshihara, S. Ueda, T. Nakaguchi, K.
Sakaue, T. Namiki and Y. Miyake, “Effect of Fixing
a Tiny Wearable Display on a Tongue Imaging
Analyzing System (TIAS) to Improve Stability ofTongue Presentation,” Bull. Soc. Photogr. Imag.
Japan, pp. 4–8, Vol. 28, No. 1 (2018)

Averageof A~H

2.934