Development and evaluation of a novel method for in-vivo determination of human skin elasticity based on capacitive measurement

Abstract

Since the medicine and research has great interest on the human skin and its physiological properties, parameter like thickness, moisture, toughness and the elasticity received more attention. Therefore, many types of measurement methods were implemented and are nowadays useable for specialists within a laboratory environment. The aim of this work was to find a handy method, usable for every person without paying attention to environmental influences. The application of a flexible capacitor on human skin, is the idea for the developed elasticity measurement method in this thesis. This principle works with the measurement of a certain capacity value regarding the change of length. Furthermore, the capacity output stands for a specific grade of elasticity of the skin area. Some key figures of the measurement outputs have been investigated. The reproducibility of the values of one Hydrogel-Sensor, the flexible capacitor, has been verified as well as the sensor to sensor correlation. Influencing parameters on the capacity outputs like skin contact and geometry of the capacitor have been examined. Finally, the measurement outputs done with the Hydrogel-Sensor on test groups have been directly compared to the outputs of the “gold-standard”, the Cutometer. The results of these investigations are promising but require further improvements. The production execution, used materials and the measurement procedure of the developed novel method need to be further developed and optimized.