Disordered spatial pattern of redness signal on facial skin and visual perception of health, stress, and hidden aging

Abstract

Background: Well-being is commonly communicated across industries; however, experimental understanding how human perceive skin health and skin stresses are not sufficient.

Materials and methods: Image analysis algorithm, a* gradient, was developed to evaluate spatial pattern and shape of red signal on skin. Human perception for skin health and stresses were compared with technical measurements in two visual perception studies.

Results: a* gradient correlated with perceived Inflamed Skin (R = 0.73, p < 0.01), Stressed Skin (R = 0.79, p < 0.01), Sensitive Skin (R = 0.75, p < 0.01), Healthy Skin (R = -0.83, p < 0.01), and Start Aging (R = 0.75, p < 0.01).

Conclusions: Disordered spatial pattern of redness signal drives human perception of skin health, stress, and aging. This new skin index of redness signal shows higher correlation with those human perception than basal a* mean, unevenness of a*, and other conventional skin color attributes.

Keywords: aging; color pattern; image analysis; inflammation; perception; sensitive skin; skin health; stressed skin.