Tracking Skin Colour and Wrinkle Changes During Cosmetic Product Trials Using Smartphone Images

Background: To explore how the efficacy of product trials for skin cosmetics can be improved through the use of consumer-level images taken by volunteers using a conventional smartphone. Materials and Methods: 12 women aged 30 to 60 years participated in a product trial and had close-up images of the cheek and temple regions of their faces taken with a high-resolution Antera 3D CS camera at the start and end of a 4-week period. Additionally, they each had ``selfies'' of the same regions of their faces taken regularly throughout the trial period. Automatic image analysis to identify changes in skin colour used three kinds of colour normalisation and analysis for wrinkle composition identified edges and calculated their magnitude. Results: Images taken at the start and end of the trial acted as baseline ground truth for normalisation of smartphone images and showed large changes in both colour and wrinkle magnitude during the trial for many volunteers. Conclusions: Results demonstrate that regular use of selfie smartphone images within trial periods can add value to interpretation of the efficacy of the trial.