## 1 Introduction  
Wound care is a specialized medical field focused on the assessment, treatment, and management of wounds that fail to heal properly, such as chronic ulcers, burns, or surgical wounds. It involves a multidisciplinary approach to promote healing, prevent infection, and reduce complications, often incorporating techniques such as cleaning, dressing, debridement, and advanced therapies like negative-pressure wound therapy or the use of bioengineered skin substitutes [1]. Effective wound care aims to restore the skin's integrity while minimizing pain and improving the patient's overall quality of life. It is a condition that affects approximately 1-2% of the global population [2]. This medical field has long been considered a second-tier specialty but has gained recognition as the importance of chronic wound management has grown, especially with aging populations and the rise of conditions like diabetes [3]. However, it has been recognized that the clinical pathway for the diagnosis and treatment of skin ulcers requires particular attention. Skin ulcers are open wounds on the skin characterized by the loss of epidermal tissue, often resulting from various underlying conditions such as poor circulation, pressure, or infection [4]. They can be acute or chronic, with chronic ulcers persisting for over six weeks and often being difficult to heal [5]. The management of skin ulcers is complex and varies based on their etiology and severity, necessitating a comprehensive understanding of their pathophysiology and treatment options. In addition, wounds that do not respond to standard therapies have a significant impact causing discomfort in the daily lives of patients and their caregivers and increasing the burden on the healthcare system. Early detection, assessment, and treatment of the wound are crucial for patient recovery. Estimates suggest that about 5-10% of individuals will suffer from this condition during their lifetime, while the annual incidence ranges from 0.3% to 1.9% [6]. Further studies have shown that after four weeks, there is a 30% chance that the injury will never heal, in particular, a 50% chance of loss of the affected limb and a 50% probability of death within the next five years [7]. Several interviews conducted with specialists in the field revealed an alarming situation regarding the scarcity of experts and the lack of standardized protocols for the diagnosis and the definition of treatment plans. In particular, it was found that in clinical practice, wound dressing and monitoring were typically performed by nurses and non-specialist caregivers, who rotated in the care of the patient. This rotation often cannot ensure continuity and adequate attention to each patient. These issues highlight the need for a tool that supports clinicians and healthcare providers in the clinical evaluation of wound status, providing fast, precise, and objective assessment. Although new opportunities are emerging for the development of new innovative techniques in this field [8; 9], gaining the trust of physicians remains a challenge. Moreover, the high cost of technology and the attachment to traditional visual methods for wound assessment continue to dominate the clinical management of skin lesions [10]. On the other hand, it is important to consider that traditional methods for extracting evaluation parameters are often rudimentary, imprecise, and painful for the patient. Specifically, measuring the wound area is traditionally done with simple tools such as a ruler [11], especially in homecare settings. This approach can only measure regular shapes, such as the area of a square or a rectangle, leading to measurement errors of up to 30%, as shown in Figure 1a. Beyond the lack of precision in extracting wound parameters, manual measurement also causes discomfort and sometimes pain to the patient due to direct contact with the sensitive damaged skin.