Skinobi – Affordable Sensor to Track Skin Condition and Age
At a glance
- Project leader : Prof. Dr. Mathias Bonmarin
- Deputy of project leader : Prof. Dr. Gernot Kurt Boiger
- Project team : Dr. Christoph Kirsch, Prof. Dr. Alexander Navarini, Timon Renggli, Dr. Fabrizio Spano, Dr. Asier Zubiaga
- Project status : completed
- Funding partner : CTI (KTI-Projekt / Projekt Nr. 27193.2 PFLS-LS)
- Project partner : Universitätsspital Basel
- Contact person : Mathias Bonmarin
Description
The skin is the first barrier of our organism and plays therefore a very important role. Like every other organs, skin can be affected by different diseases. Although very few of them are lethal, they can have a dramatic psychological impact for those affected. In addition, in our modern society, skin reflects our health and youth and plays a very important social role. Today, thousands different products are available over the counter to either treat specific skin disorders or to simply preserve the skin from aging and external aggressions.
Our goal is to help every customer assessing the efficacy of his or her skin treatment or preferred daily lotion. The measuring instrument will be wireless connected to a smart-phone or tablet and will allow the user to easily retrieve important skin parameters. To achieve this task, we will use an innovative sensor developed to specifically measure the thermal characteristics of the skin. Thermal conductivity, heat capacity or density are very good markers of the skin condition and correlate with physiological parameters like hydration or epidermis thickness.
Up to now, the few apparatus on the market are either reserved to trained professionals or are closer from “lifestyle gadgets” than scientific-based devices. We want to close this gap and offer an affordable yet reliable device for home use. If preliminary work has been achieved within the framework of a SATW project, substantial scientific and technical developments are still required to reach the poof-of-concept stage. The goal of this project is to develop a fully working prototype, both in term of hardware and software that can be used as a demonstrator. Technical developments will be achieved in close collaboration with ZHAW while experimental validation will take place at the Zurich University Hospital. Finally, a first batch of 100 devices will be produced by opus néoi GmbH and delivered to key opinion leaders and potential strategic partners.
Publications
-
Zubiaga, Asier; Kirsch, Christoph; Boiger, Gernot Kurt; Bonmarin, Mathias,
2021.
A simple instrument to measure the thermal transport properties of the human skin [paper].
In:
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Medical Measurements and Applications.
2021 IEEE International Symposium on Medical Measurements and Applications (MeMeA), Lausanne, Switzerland, 23-25 June 2021.
IEEE.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.1109/MeMeA52024.2021.9478754