Automatic Focus Assessment on Dermoscopic Images Acquired with Smartphones

Over recent years, there has been an increase in popularity of the acquisition of dermoscopic skin lesion images using mobile devices, more specifically using the smartphone camera. The demand for self-care and telemedicine solutions requires suitable methods to guide and evaluate the acquired images’ quality in order to improve the monitoring of skin lesions. In this work, a system for automated focus assessment of dermoscopic images was developed using a feature-based machine learning approach. The system was designed to guide the user throughout the acquisition process by means of a preview image validation approach that included artifact detection and focus validation, followed by the image quality assessment of the acquired picture. This paper also introduces two different datasets, dermoscopic skin lesions and artifacts, which were collected using different mobile devices to develop and test the system. The best model for automatic preview assessment attained an overall accuracy of 77.9% while focus assessment of the acquired picture reached a global accuracy of 86.2%. These findings were validated by implementing the proposed methodology within an android application, demonstrating promising results as well as the viability of the proposed solution in a real life scenario.