Sony’s ‘Smart Skin’ camera detects zits before they appear

By Abigail Prendergast (Digital Journalist/Guest contributor)

Sony‘s new SSKEP (Smart Skin Evaluation Program) is capable of mapping out various types of skin and conditions. When put into cameras in mobile devices, this technology will be able to see blemishes before they even materialize.

Sony, long known for being a highly successful, and at times, bold company, has developed the technology to detect blemishes before they are even on your face.

According to PC World, the tech giant announced on Monday that its “Smart Skin Evaluation Program,” or SSKEP, can be utilized in smartphone and tablet cameras in order to evaluate the health of a user’s skin. This is done by analyzing various wavelengths of light that reflect off of different types of skin, determining things like texture and pigmentation.

Stating that it utilizes CMOS image sensor technology, Sony combined such with the newly developed program so it can pick up on irregularities and other flaws on a digital image, pixel by pixel. This includes the ability to see below the skin’s surface by utilizing non-visible light, including light near the infrared spectrum.

In Japan, both skin care products and evaluation is a “booming industry,” especially when it comes to females. Sony said they wanted to expand the new technology into a “diverse range of applications.”

Saying they wanted to “expand the use” of the aforementioned CMOS sensors, which are used in phones like the Samsung Galaxy S3 and iPhone 5, hoping to stretch out the cameras’ ability to sense objects, colors and movements.

Despite its struggles and subsequent outsourcing, Sony is promoting its image sensors quite actively, particularly those used in mobile devices. The company said it will invest $1 billion into production of the sensors by September 2013.

Just this past August, Sony started sales of its “stacked” image sensors, utilizing chips that “stack” their on board circuitry underneath the pixels that are used to take pictures. So far, images have been captured by “laying it alongside.”

This new technology will ultimately lead to a more efficient means of photo taking, along with a smaller footprint due to faster processing, Sony claims.

This article originally appeared in Digital Journal [Link]