Patent ID: 7916910

Claim:
An image processing apparatus comprising: a data store operable to store model data defining a relationship between data indicative of an apparent colour of skin derived from image data and concentrations of one or more chromophores in the skin; a distribution determination module operable to process received image data representative of an image of an individual and use the model data stored in said data store to determine a distribution of at least one chromophore in skin of the represented individual; a treatment simulation module operable to process the determined distribution of at least one chromophore determined by said distribution determination module to generate data simulating a revised chromophore distribution resulting from treatment of the individual; a variation determination module operable to determine ratios for scaling the revised chromophore distribution to produce an image, the ratios being ratios of colour values in the received image data to corresponding colour values in the distribution determined by said distribution module; and an image data generation module operable to generate data representative of an individual by converting said revised chromophore distribution to colour values and scaling the colour values of said revised chromophore distribution by said ratios determined by the variation determination module, according to the following equation: R out ⁢ ⁢ ( x , y ) = R original ⁡ ( x , y ) R derived ⁡ ( x , y ) ⁢ R treated ⁢ ⁢ ( x , y ) G out ⁢ ⁢ ( x , y ) = G original ⁡ ( x , y ) G derived ⁡ ( x , y ) ⁢ G treated ⁢ ⁢ ( x , y ) B out ⁢ ⁢ ( x , y ) = B original ⁡ ( x , y ) B derived ⁡ ( x , y ) ⁢ B treated ⁢ ⁢ ( x , y ) where R out (x,y), G out (x,y) and B out (x,y) are output red, green, and blue values for a pixel at position x,y and R original (x,y), R derived (x,y), R treated (x,y), G original (x,y), G derived (x,y), G treated (x,y), B original (x,y), B derived (x,y), B treated (x,y), are red, green and blue values for corresponding pixels at position x,y in the received image data received by the distribution determination module and in the determined and revised data generated by the distribution determination module and the treatment simulation module respectively.