The International Space Station welcomes on board Mini-EUSO (Extreme Universe Space Observatory), a next generation telescope that studies earth and space. Mini-EUSO is developed by a research team from Riken (the Japanese Institute of Physical and Chemical Research) in collaboration with L’Oréal Research and Innovation. Thanks to L’Oréal R&I’s expertise in skin imaging and data processing, the joint research improves the quality and analysis of images obtained with this telescope.

Sophisticated Imaging Devices
The observation of space and skin requires sophisticated imaging devices. For space researchers from 16 nations who participated to the EUSO project, the objective was to catch rare phenomena of terrestrial or space origin and create a dynamic map of various events occurring in the earth’s atmosphere. To detect and study this unknown matter, cosmic rays or interstellar meteorites that reach the earth, the EUSO group at Riken developed a new detector based on multi-wavelength imaging.

Developing a Full-face Hyperspectral Imager

The aim for L’Oréal was to develop a full-face hyperspectral imager to be used in vivo to better characterize and understand skin features such as color, pigmentation disorders, and skin lesions. The joint work ranged from the development of imaging systems and detectors, to data processing and development of algorithms for feature extraction and identification.

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