The spatial distributions of melanin and hemoglobin in human skin can be determined by image-based skin chromophore analysis including independent component analysis (ICA) of a skin color image. The separation is based on the skin color model in the optical density domain to quantify the change in the chromophores. In this paper, the analysis technique developed by Tsumura et al. was applied to many skin images, and the distribution of skin chromophores, such as melanin and hemoglobin, agreed well with the physiological knowledge. The effectiveness of cosmetic products was also evaluated by observing the changes in the amount of each chromophore. Finally a simulation to synthesize the changes in skin chromophores was performed to demonstrate its validity.
Nobutoshi Ojima, Syuuichi Akazaki, Kimihiko Hori, Norimichi Tsumura, Yoichi Miyake, "Application of Image-Based Skin Chromophore Analysis to Cosmetics" in Journal of Imaging Science and Technology, 2004, pp 222 - 226, https://doi.org/10.2352/J.ImagingSci.Technol.2004.48.3.art00006