Skin Mechanical Properties and Hydration Measured with Mobile Phone Camera

Dehydration is known to lead to serious health conditions and diseases, and a convenient way to check one's hydration level may help reduce risk of dehydration. A widely used method by clinicians is skin turgor test, which is based on the visual inspection of skin mechanical properties. The test does not require special equipment, but it lacks quantification and is hard to practice by non-experts. Here, we demonstrate the detection of hydration state based on analyzing skin mechanical properties with a mobile phone camera. The camera captures and quantifies the dynamic processes of skin stretching and relaxation related to hydration using two methods: 1) tracking of a mark drawn on the skin and 2) the natural skin texture change during the turgor test. Tests on a small cohort of human subjects have been carried to validate the methods.