Skin aging manifests through various clinical signs, with wrinkles, sagging, and uneven complexion being the most prominent. Consequently, the majority of anti-aging skincare ingredients and products focus on addressing or preventing these concerns.
At QIMA Life Sciences, we excel in offering comprehensive solutions to support anti-aging claims. Discover all about our digital imaging solutions in this article.
To prove clinical anti-aging effects, we offer two distinct yet complementary approaches that you can choose from based on your project goals.
If your objective is obtaining precise, unbiased, and quantitative data about performance, our digital imaging analyses may probably be the best choice. These leverage automated, in-house developed algorithms to analyze extensive image libraries, providing clear and measurable insights into how well your product works.
On the other hand, if you’re more interested in understanding how consumers perceive the effects of your products, our grading solutions might be the best choice. This approach relies on a panel of naive or trained assessors who evaluate images individually, paying close attention to specific signs of skin aging. While their assessments are inherently subjective, they offer a realistic perspective, simulating how your product’s results might be judged in real-world scenarios.
Each approach offers unique benefits. To learn more about our automated analysis and panel assessments—and identify the best fit for your project—we invite you to continue reading.
A. Wrinkle analysis
Facial wrinkles are a clear sign of aging and can be categorized by their location, such as forehead wrinkles, glabellar lines, crow’s feet, bitterness folds, and nasolabial folds. At QIMA Life Sciences, we specialize in assessing cosmetic effects on all types of wrinkles and even fine lines, which are often more challenging to study.
Our solution stands out due to its tailored approach. Instead of relying on a single generic algorithm, we refine our methods to accurately detect and quantify specific types of facial wrinkles. This customization ensures that our detection algorithms are perfectly suited to your volunteer panel, considering factors like ethnicity, age, and wrinkle severity.
Our comprehensive analysis allows you to demonstrate effects not only on wrinkle count and length but also on their surface area and depth. Furthermore, our advanced AI and machine learning capabilities enhance algorithm refinement, ensuring effective wrinkle segmentation across all skin types, aligned with visual perception. With our proprietary image capture technology, we also provide 3D reconstruction to thoroughly examine wrinkle depth.
Our digital imaging analysis provides precise, unbiased, and quantitative data on the anti-wrinkle efficacy of your products. Our custom in-house algorithms are tailored to fit your volunteer panel, considering factors such as ethnicity, age, and wrinkle severity.
B. Sagging analysis
Another prominent sign of skin aging is sagging, caused by a loss of dermal elasticity and volume. This feature is particularly noticeable on the cheeks, under the neck, and around the eyes but can also occur in other body areas. Our 2D and 3D image capture systems (including our recently launched DynaCam®) together with our image analysis algorithms will help you support claims related to sagging area, sagging amplitude and volume for different areas of the face, including jaws, eyelids, and eyebags.
Sagging can be quantified from both 2D and 3D data.
Another clinical sign associated with skin aging is the appearance of solar lentigo patches—small, brownish areas of skin that commonly develop on sun-exposed parts of the body. These patches result from the UV-induced proliferation of melanin-accumulating keratinocytes and typically appear on the hands, legs, face, and scalp (especially in cases of balding).
Our image capture devices, combined with our advanced image analysis algorithms, are perfectly suited for studying solar lentigo and demonstrating product efficacy. They can effectively showcase reductions in the number, size, or color intensity of lentigo spots. For facial solar lentigo, we recommend our ColorFace® technology, whereas for other body areas, our portable SkinCam® and SkinCam Pro® devices are often a more suitable choice. However, if you want to focus specifically on the skin of the hands, the DigiCam® system will be the best option, as it ensures precise hand repositioning.
For a deeper analysis, we also offer advanced hyperspectral image capture technology, including our SpectraCam® and SpectraFace® devices. These tools help accurately quantify melanin in lentigo spots, hemoglobin in purpura blotches, and even measure oxygen saturation in under-eye dark circles. Additionally, our UVCam® also helps in the quantification of skin melanin as well as in the analysis of underlying spots.
Complexion homogeneity can be precisely quantified by digital imaging analysis.
To better understand how customers perceive the effects of your products, we offer image evaluations through our PhotoScale® and VideoScale® platforms. These online tools are designed to standardize the scoring process, providing results that are as unbiased as possible and closely aligned with human perception.
You’ll be able to choose from multiple grading methodologies, including:
We are excited to introduce our latest AI-driven development for enhanced wrinkle grading. Traditional photographic atlases used for wrinkle evaluation can be inconsistent across different skin tones and age groups. Our new solution involves the creation of standardized digital scales using computer-generated images. Integrated into the PhotoScale® platform, these digital scales were initially designed for crow’s feet and are now being adapted for other aging signs, such as glabellar wrinkles and nasolabial folds. This AI-based approach offers superior control over imagery compared to traditional photographs, allowing for precise tuning to specific morphological criteria.
SCAWA (Standardized ColorFace® AI-based Wrinkle Assessment) scales: A new digital tool for wrinkles clinical grading based on AI.
No matter the approach you choose, the next step is to effectively communicate your results to customers, and we are here to help with this as well. Our illustration services ensure your product’s efficacy is conveyed clearly and powerfully, enhancing your marketing efforts.
One particularly effective solution involves creating a virtual face to display “real results” based on your research. This virtual face, which smooths out skin imperfections, is copyright-free and can represent the average of all volunteers in your study. Study results, whether average or best-case scenarios, are then overlaid on this image to speak for themselves.
Real before-and-after effects visualized on a virtual face. Crow’s feet wrinkles from a real volunteer were mapped onto a virtual average face, showcasing changes between two time points (day 0 and day 56).
Additionally, we can use biophysical data obtained from different facial zones—collected using instruments like corneometers or sebumeters—to create “maps” that can be superimposed on virtual faces, clearly illustrating before-and-after effects in a compelling manner.
Visualization of biophysical measurements using color mapping. This illustration showcases a hydration map created from corneometer data (30 individual measurements), highlighting variations in skin hydration levels.
QIMA Life Sciences has recently launched DynaCam®, an innovative image and video capture device set to redefine the limits of what’s possible today in clinical skin evaluation.
With enhanced sensor resolution, DynaCam® delivers superior image quality, offering high-fidelity imaging that allows for a more detailed and accurate study of subtle traits, such as fine lines. It also enables multi-angle image acquisition, to select the best angle for your analysis, and offers a range of lighting modalities to suit various needs, including cross-polarized (ideal for skin complexion and tone evenness studies), and parallel-polarized imaging (useful for visible relief such as wrinkles, fine lines, and pores).
One of the most remarkable features of DynaCam® is its ability to recreate “true” diffuse lighting—light that comes from all directions—just as you would experience on a sunny day outdoors. This groundbreaking innovation enables you to achieve results that closely align with everyday visual perceptions.
The name DynaCam® captures the device’s dynamic nature and core feature: video acquisition. The dynamic video station features different modes, including an automatic rotating and translating camera (similar to an ‘orbital’ movement) that allows for the capture of 4K videos of the face at 180°, automatic movement of lighting around the face, and simultaneous movement of both lighting and camera. The best part? You’ll also be able to examine facial expressions as well as static and dynamic signs of aging, all under specific lighting and camera configurations.
Last but not least, 3D facial acquisition is possible with DynaCam®, and it can be completed in just 10 seconds. The 3D acquisition mode delivers precise data on facial volume and contours, making it particularly valuable for studies on cheek and lip volume, eye bags, sagging skin, and age-related volume loss. Additionally, it serves as a powerful ally for research on facial volume changes after rejuvenation surgery, contour modifications resulting from surgical procedures, and the volumizing effects of cosmetic products and fillers.
Eager to bring your skincare innovations to life?
CONTACT US TODAY AT ls@qima.com
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