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Development of a camera-based remote diagnostic system focused on color reproduction using color charts

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Abstract

In this paper, we propose a color reproduction method using color charts to improve the color quality of a telemedicine system. Owing to the spread of COVID-19, the need for telemedicine is rapidly increasing to prevent infections more effectively. However, in practices such as traditional Japanese (Kampo) medicine, where color is used as an important examination factor, an accurate diagnosis cannot be made without adequate color reproduction. In telemedicine using a commercially available smartphone, color reproducibility may deteriorate owing to differences in the devices and lighting, which may result in a misdiagnosis. Therefore, we created a color chart that includes the colors of the human skin and tongue as a tool to help doctors identify the color of patients more accurately when conducting a telemedicine examination. Through a subjective evaluation by eight medical doctors, it was unanimously found that the proposed method is practical in terms of a color examination. The developed color chart can also be used for an automatic color correction.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Kampo medicine doctors at Kanazawa University for their cooperation in this experiment amidst the spread of COVID-19. In addition, we would like to thank all of the people involved at DICG for the high-quality charts produced, including the printing and paper selection.

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Author notes

  1. Masato Takahashi and Ryo Takahashi have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan

    Masato Takahashi & Ryo Takahashi

  2. Business Promotion & New Development Department, DIC Graphics Corporation, Tokyo, Japan

    Yasuhiro Morihara

  3. New Business Planning Department, DIC Corporation, Tokyo, Japan

    Masato Takahashi

  4. Sensing Corporation, Tokyo, Japan

    Isseki Kin

  5. Department of Japanese-Traditional (Kampo) Medicine, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan

    Keiko Ogawa-Ochiai

  6. Graduate School of Engineering, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan

    Norimichi Tsumura

Authors
  1. Masato Takahashi
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  2. Ryo Takahashi
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  3. Yasuhiro Morihara
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  4. Isseki Kin
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  5. Keiko Ogawa-Ochiai
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  6. Norimichi Tsumura
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Masato Takahashi.

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Takahashi, M., Takahashi, R., Morihara, Y. et al. Development of a camera-based remote diagnostic system focused on color reproduction using color charts. Artif Life Robotics 25, 370–376 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10015-020-00627-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10015-020-00627-1

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