The 360° scanner – a dermatological whole-body scanner
for the early detection of skin tumors
Malignant melanoma is aggressive and life-threatening. For this reason, health insurers
encourage their patients to attend skin cancer screening examinations. In most cases, a
dermatologist inspects atypical moles with a dermatoscope and observes whether they change
over time. The challenge lies in keeping track of changes – such as the growth of individual
moles – among the large number of moles a person has. These examinations are highly time-,
labor-, and cost-intensive.
Together with a team of researchers, physicians, technicians, and engineers, we developed a
dermatological whole-body scanner (DermaScan Plus). The dermatological scanner enables
improved progression documentation of every individual mole.
How the 360° scanner works
The patient is currently positioned inside a cabin on a rotating platform. The patient's skin
surface is captured from various positions using high-resolution camera and scanning
technology and divided into individual images. By fusing these individual images, 3D
measurement data is generated, which assigns a scale to every single pixel in the image. By
calibrating the sensors and cameras, the spatial position of the moles is determined precisely,
so that changes can be identified unambiguously even in images captured from different
distances and positions. The measurement data and images are then imported into analysis
software, where they are evaluated and automatically classified. Earlier follow-up images are
compared with the current images by the software. With this technology, growth can be detected
from as little as half a millimeter.
