BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention involves methods and systems for predicting and/or tracking changes of one or more conditions of an external body portion of a subject. The invention may have applicability in predicting future evolution of one or more external body conditions.

2. Description of Related Art

Individuals always have a curiosity in learning about what will happen in the future. One particular area of interest relates to an individual's curiosity about how she will look in the future. Since a“crystal ball” or“time machine” exist only in fairy tales and science fiction, an exact forecast of an individual's future appearance is impossible to attain. With the advancement of modem research techniques and data processing devices, however, somewhat accurate assessments of an individual's prognosis are becoming more and more possible.

One area where there is a particular interest in using information relating to an individual's future outlook is in the field of beauty. As an individual grows older, she may develop conditions such as wrinkles, skin lines, hair loss, and skin discolorations, such as those caused by over-exposure to the sun or more generally to her lifestyle. It is known that if, at least some of these conditions may be eliminated, reduced, the ageing might be slowed to a less aggressive pace.

US6761697 discloses a method enabling consumers to understand the future outlook of their personal appearance making individuals aware of how much better they might look in the future if they use certain beauty products earlier in their life. This method provides a means to encourage individuals to purchase a greater number of those products and to use them throughout their life. In this method, future personal information about the lifestyle of the consumer might be required. Nevertheless, these data are not processed to generate a prediction of the ageing of the consumer depending on a lifestyle. Moreover, this document gives no comparison between the look of the consumer according to future data and current data.

As a consequence, the method according to US6761697 doesn’t encourage the consumer to change or to maintain his lifestyle, as no comparison between the effect of lifestyles over his outlook are delivered. In other word, this document doesn’t disclose the evolution of an external body portion without changing his lifestyle and with changing his lifestyle. Currently, the evaluation of all the clinical signs, in particular the measurement of how they vary with age, can occur using atlases or morphing, as described in the patent application EP 1 216 658 in the name of the Applicant.

WO2015087274, also in the name of the Applicant, discloses a method that additionally takes into consideration face’s deformations and their impact on apparent age or attractiveness. The method evaluates at least one facial clinical sign, comprising:

from a sequence of facial images of a person filmed while emitting at least one sound, extract from the sequence one or more images coinciding with the emission of at least one predefined sound,

from the resulting image or images extracted, evaluate at least one facial clinical sign appearing on the image or images extracted.

The existing evaluation processes of ageing are not entirely satisfactory since they do not take into account the lifestyle of a person, its environment and their impact on apparent age or attractiveness.

There is a need to perfect the processes of the evaluation of ageing of facial clinical signs, also called appearance characteristics, such as wrinkles, in particular the under-eye wrinkles, the crow’s feet wrinkles, the nasolabial fold, the forehead, the comers of the lips, the upper lip by taking into account the lifestyle and the environment.

There is also a need to assess the effect of a lifestyle and of an environment on the face's appearance today and to assess how the face appearance will change over the time according to a planned future for the lifestyle and the environment.

There is a need for the prediction of facial ageing based on lifestyle and environment.

There is a need to transform all the acquired knowledge on skin aging, such as atlas, morphing, publications or studies, to predict the future of facial skin aging based on lifestyles, environment and present of skin.

There is a need to transform all the acquired knowledge into consumer language.

There is a need to consider many factors of environment and lifestyle and to be able to establish the impact of each of them on facial ageing through lifetime.

There is a need to rely on devoted studies carried out for a great number of factors of environment and lifestyle in view of producing an accurate evaluation, for example through images or videos, of the facial ageing through lifetime. Therefore, there is a need for an interactive device which is able to manage data received from a user, to show him the effect of a modification of his lifestyle over his outlook, so that he might realize the interest of keeping his lifestyle or changing it.

OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The problem of the invention is to provide a system enabling consumers to understand how much the future outlook of their personal appearance depends of their lifestyle. For example, making individuals aware of how much better they might look in the future if they live under certain conditions early in their life. This might provide a means to encourage individuals to find better lifestyle in the future.

In a first aspect, the invention relates to a cosmetic system without therapeutic target for the prediction of the ageing of at least one characteristic of a user' external body portion, comprising:

one or more memory circuits configured to store a reference data; and

one or more processing circuits configured to:

accept at least one first data depicting a user’s external body portion in a first time frame;

accept at least one second data depicting a user’s personal information in the first time frame;

process the at least one first data and the at least one second data; generate a predicted information of the aging of the user’s external body portion in a second time frame.

Preferably, the one or more circuits are configured to compare the at least one first data and the at least second data with a reference data of a databases.

The second time frame can be chosen by the user. It can be a timeline over many years, months, days or simply at present time. The user has the opportunity to select the prediction he wants, with Active or real parameters. This way he can know what will happen now and in the future if he keeps living as he currently does or if he changes.

The external body portion can be the face or also smaller or bigger body regions, such as only a specific wrinkle, a specific spot or a whole arm.

The predicted information can be of any kind, such as an image by also a length or a depth. In a particular embodiment, the invention relates to a system comprising: one or more memory circuits configured to store machine learning models; and one or more processing circuits configured to:

accept at least one first data depicting a user’s external body portion in a first time frame;

accept at least one second data from depicting the user’s first lifestyle in the first time frame;

apply the machine learning models to the first data to classify the external body portion characteristics;

apply the machine learning models to the second data to classify the first lifestyle characteristics;

and

generate a predicted information of the aging of the user’s external body portion in a second time frame based on the classified external body portion characteristics of the first time frame and on the classified first lifestyle characteristics of the first time frame, the predicted information comprising the evolution of the user’s external body portion if the classified first lifestyle characteristics remains the same during the second time frame than during the first time frame.

According to a first embodiment of the system according to the invention, the processing circuits are further configured to process the first data to progress the user’s external body portion in a simulated condition of a second lifestyle in the second timeframe.

The method may include receiving a first data and receiving second data. The first data may be representative of one or more conditions of the subject's external body portion in a first time frame, and the second data may be representative of the subject's lifestyle at the first time frame. The method may further include generating a forecasted evolution of the external body portion and transmitting the forecasted evolution to the subject. The generation of the forecasted evolution is based on the first data and the second data. The forecasted evolution could be in a variety of differing forms, such as diagrams, graphs, charts, and other representations.

In the first embodiment according to the invention, a second lifestyle condition might be proposed by the consumer or by an operator. The system simulates the ageing of the person also under these second conditions. Of course, a third, a fourth lifestyle conditions might be added to the second lifestyle condition to stimulate with more accuracy the ageing of the external body portion. These additional lifestyle conditions might be processed separately also.

Preferably, the second data is not a beauty habit, such as a beauty care habit or a make-up habit.

In one example, the generation of the forecasted evolution may include extrapolating at least the first and second data to forecast how the external body portion will change in the future.

Preferably, the first time frame represents the current time, at the day when the consumer uses the system.

Preferably, the second time frame represents a future time frame, such as days or even years after the consumer has used the system.

Preferably, the first data is an image, notably a two-dimensional image, a three-dimensional image, a scanned image, and a representation of one of a mechanical measurement and an optical measurement.

According to the invention, the system receives at least two data representing the current time frame. Accordingly, this double data generates a reference or a calibration of the system at the current time frame. This calibration takes into account not only the current outlook but also the condition of life of the consumer up to the current date.

For example, the system receives an image of the consumer and the data that he smokes. Then the system proceeds both of these data to simulate a future face.

In a second aspect, the invention relates to a cosmetic method without therapeutic target for the prediction of the ageing of at least one characteristic of a user' external body portion comprising:

accepting at least one first data depicting a user’s external body portion in a first time frame;

accepting at least one second data depicting a user’s personal information in the first time frame;

processing the at least one first data and the at least one second data; generating a predicted information of the aging of the user’s external body portion in a second time frame. Preferably, the processing comprises comparing the at least one first data and the at least second data with a reference data of a databases.

Thanks to the invention, it is now possible to use all the information stored in data basis to predict the future of a user’s external body portion according to a specific user’s personal information.

The prediction can either be carried out over many years or simply for the near future or just for the present time.

The user can choose any body portion, no matter of the size of the portion, as far as he might be concerned by this portion. For instance, some people care about wrinkles, other care about spots and others are concerned with their whole face.

The second data can be a real data or a fictive data, a Active one can be of interest to show to the user the influence of changing his personal information, such as his lifestyle, if he wants to see a change on the prediction.

In a particular embodiment, the invention relates to a method comprising:

accepting at least one first data depicting a user’s external body portion in a first time frame;

accepting at least one second data from depicting the user’s first lifestyle in the first time frame;

applying the machine learning models to the first data to classify the external body portion characteristics;

applying the machine learning models to the second data to classify the first lifestyle characteristics;

and

generating a predicted information of the aging of the user’s external body portion in a second time frame based on the classified external body portion characteristics of the first time frame and on the classified first lifestyle characteristics of the first time frame, the predicted information comprising the evolution of the user’s external body portion if the classified first lifestyle characteristics remains the same during the second time frame than during the first time frame. According to a first embodiment of the process according to the invention, it further comprises processing the first data to progress the user’s external body portion in a simulated condition of a second lifestyle in the second timeframe.

MAIN DEFINITION

The“reference data of a databases” may comprise:

Stored data with one or more sequences of image comprising at least two images,

One or more atlas displayed on a screen or printed on a medium or in a form stored in a computer storage medium, such as the atlas described in WO201 1/141769, each atlas representing different gradations of at least one characteristic of the body typology, Reference may advantageously be made to the publication “Atlas du vieillissement cutam” (“Atlas of skin ageing”), published in the Med' Com Editions,

Synthetic images,

Internet publications,

Artificial intelligence (AI) which may include fuzzy logic, neural networks, genetic programming and decision tree programming. Al engines may be trained based on input such as product information, expert advice, user profile, or data based on sensory perceptions. Using input an Al engine may implement an iterative training process. Training may be based on a wide variety of learning rules or training algorithms Scientific publications, such as:

Frederic Flament et al.,“ Effect of the sun on visible clinical signs of aging in Caucasian skin”, Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology, 2013:6 221 -232, which calculates the importance of UV and sun exposure in the visible aging of a Caucasian woman’s face. This effect is about 80%.

Frederic Flament et al .f Solar exposure(s) and facial clinical signs of aging in Chinese women: impacts upon age perception Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology, 2015:8 75-84, which concludes that as compared with their Caucasian counterparts, where sun- induced damage represents approximately 80% of aging signs in sun-seeking subjects, all facial signs of Asian women studied seem to present a sun-related origin, in addition to the chronological aging process.

Frederic Flament et ah,“ Effects of seasonality and a daily photo-protection upon some facial signs of Chinese women International Journal of Cosmetic Science, 2017, 39, 256- 268 confirming that that a high photoprotective regimen alleviates or prevents some undesired signs of skin darkening that are perceived by Asian consumers as ciphers, among others, of an ineluctable ageing.

Frederic Flament et al.” How a working day-induced-tiredness may alter some facial signs in differently-aged Caucasian women International Journal of Cosmetic Science, 2017, 39, 467-475 suggesting that such‘anti-tired look’ strategy should be specifically adapted to some age-specific facial signs that are more sensitive to a daily induced tiredness.

Frederic Flament et al.” A severe chronic outdoor urban pollution alters some facial aging signs in Chinese women. A tale of two cities. International Journal of Cosmetic Science, 2018, 40, 467-481.

Examples of external body portions may include hair, skin, nails, face, scalp, neck, eye regions, ears, torso, arms, legs, and/or other parts of the subject's body.

Preferably, the external body portion is the face.

FIRST DATA

The“external body portions characteristics” are features that reflects the body’s portion condition. These characteristics may include elasticity, dryness, cellulitis, sweating, wrinkles, exfoliation, desquamation, homogeneity of color, creases, liver spots, clarity, lines, micro- circulation, shininess, softness, smoothness, tone, texture, matitty, hydration, sag, suppleness, stress, springiness, firmness, sebum production, cleanliness, translucency, luminosity, irritation, redness, vasocolation, vasomotion, vasodilation, vasoconstriction, pigmentation, freckles, blemishes, oiliness, pore distribution, pore size, moles, birthmarks, acne, blackheads, whiteheads, pockmarks, warts, blisters, marks, smudges, specks, and other characteristics associated with the subject's skin.

According to the invention, the data can also be any value giving a description of the characteristic, such as a wrinkle intensity (e.g. width, depth, density) and wrinkle frequency (e.g. number of wrinkles). Characteristics other than wrinkles may include density of blemishes, number of blemishes, intensity ofblemishes, blemish size, density of freckles, number of freckles, intensity of freckles, size of freckles, tone, coloration, pH level, moisture level, reflectivity, and characteristics of the individual that may correlate to a particular aesthetic condition of the individual.

According to the invention, the user might give only one data describing the characteristic but he can also give all the data describing the characteristic. The method according to the invention provides to the user, with respect with the characteristic, the progress or the change that might include a change in intensity for wrinkle or a progress in size of freckle with the time for example.

The“data” may include an answer and/or response to at least one query prompting the subject to provide data about the subject. The query may be in the form of a question, survey, and/or prompt encouraging the subject to provide certain personal data concerning his lifestyle. It can also be an image using an image capture means, such as a camera, scanner or a web camera.

Techniques for processing images may involve binarizing the image to aid in locating conditions. Binarization may increase the contrast of the image to facilitate condition detection. Fourier transforms, fast Fourier transforms (FFTs), and/or discrete cosine transforms may be performed on all or part of the image, resulting in coefficients. Based on the coefficients, conditions may be located, as known in the art. Neural networks may also be used to identify conditions. Using the disclosure herein, persons skilled in the art would know how to train a neural network to accomplish these functions. Alternatively, one or more digital filters may be passed through the image for locating specific conditions. These examples are provided for illustrative purposes with the understanding that any image processing technique may be used within the scope and spirit of the invention.

SECOND DATA

"Personal information " may broadly encompass any information about the subject or user. Such information may, for example, fall within categories such as physical characteristics, demographics, nutritional information, cosmetic usage information, environmental information, beauty product usage information, lifestyle, eating habits, geographic location of the individual's residence, location, or work; work habits; sleep habits, exercise habits, relaxation habits, beauty care habits, smoking and drinking habits; sun exposure habits, use of sunscreen, propensity to tan, number of sunburns and serious sunburns, dietary restrictions; dietary supplements or vitamins used, travel habits, fitness information, adverse reactions to products, compounds, or elements (e.g., sun exposure), use of prior beauty care products and their effectiveness, hobbies; marital status, birth country and region, whether the subject is an urban dweller suburban dweller or rural area dweller, size of urban area in which the subject lives, whether the subject is retired.

At the end of the process, the predicted information may operate on the user’s facial images to portray how the user’s face would appear sometime in the future under the provided data. Such progression may be in age, for which age progression techniques may be deployed, or may be in appearance resulting from adherence to a lifestyle. The predicted information may be provided under the form of a video. A client interface may present a film or photograph of a person’s face as predicted information provided by the system according to the invention.

Preferably, the lifestyle includes at least the country of residence. This knowledge is of high relevancy to predict the evolution of the external body portion.

More preferably, the lifestyle includes at least two data.

Preferably, the‘lifestyle” doesn’t include cosmetic habits, cosmetic routine, cosmetic uses, cosmetic regimen, hair or skin make-up practices, hair or skin care practice, sun care customs.

One or more first data are accepted by one or more processing circuits from a user depicting the user’s facial skin. In an embodiment, machine learning models stored in one or more memory circuits are applied to the one or more first data to classify facial skin characteristics, identify significant objects, determine beauty trends, and the like. In an embodiment, a regimen recommendation is provided to the user based on the classified facial skin characteristics.

ACCELERAROR

An“accelerator” is a parameter that will accelerate ageing, such as the sun, the pollution or some drugs. The accelerator changes the predicted information ofthe aging of the user’s external body portion compared to a predicted information generated without any accelerator. Generally, a user having no associated accelerator would be a user living a very healthy live.

The“ accelerator rate” is a numerical value that quantifies the influence of an accelerator on ageing. The accelerator rate is high when the influence of the accelerator on the predicted information is high, such as the sun, and low, if it only has a small effect.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

According to further advantageous aspects of the invention, the system comprises one or several of the following features taken in isolation or in any technically possible combinations: - One or more circuits are configured to compare the at least one first data and the at least second data with a reference data of a databases.

- One or more processing circuits are configured to compute the at least one data, the at least one second data and the reference data.

- One or more processing circuits are configured to:

o identify at least one accelerator based on at least one of the first data, the second data and the reference data;

o calculate at least one accelerator rate based on the at least one identified accelerator.

One or more processing circuits configured to generate an information based on the accelerator rate.

The simulated condition under the second lifestyle is that of the user’s external body portion if he changes his first lifestyle, such as the nervous stress, the place of live, the climate, the pollution condition, the demographic condition, the social activity or the physical activity in the second time frame.

One or more processing circuits is further configured to:

accept a third data from a user depicting the user’s external body portion at least in one of the first time frame or the second time frame;

apply the machine learning models to the third data to classify external body portion characteristics at least in one of the first time frame or the second time frame; and

update the predicted information to the user based on the classified external body portion characteristics of the third data.

The one or more processing circuits are physically separated into a client platform and a service platform communicatively coupled through a communication network.

The one or more processor circuits are further configured to:

accept input from a plurality of users that classify the external body portion characteristics from training first data provided thereto; and

train the models using the accepted input.

According to further advantageous aspects of the invention, the method comprises one or several of the following features taken in isolation or in any technically possible combinations: The processing comprises comparing the at least one first data and the at least second data with a reference data of a databases.

- The processing comprises:

o identifying at least one accelerator based on at least one of the first data, the second data and the reference data;

o calculating at least one accelerator rate based on the at least one identified accelerator.

The predicted information is based on the accelerator rate.

The simulated future condition of a second lifestyle is that of the user’s external body portion when he changes his first lifestyle, such as the nervous stress, the place of live, the climate, the pollution condition, the demographic condition or the physical activity.

It further comprises:

accepting a third data from a user depicting the user’s external body portion at least in one of the first time frame or the second time frame;

applying the machine learning models to the third data to classify external body portion characteristics at least in one of the first time frame or the second time frame; and

updating the predicted information to the user based on the classified external body portion characteristics of the third data.

It further comprises:

accepting input from a plurality of users that classify the external body portion characteristics from training first data provided thereto; and

training the models using the accepted input.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a system configuration according to the invention,

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of an example system configuration by which the present general inventive concept can be embodied.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of a simple user interaction with an embodiment of the present general inventive concept.

The present inventive concept is best described through certain embodiments thereof, which are described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like features throughout. It is to be understood that the term invention, when used herein, is intended to connote the inventive concept underlying the embodiments described below and not merely the embodiments themselves. It is to be understood further that the general inventive concept is not limited to the illustrative embodiments described below and the following descriptions should be read in such light.

Additionally, the word exemplary is used herein to mean,“serving as an example, instance or illustration.” Any embodiment of construction, process, design, technique, etc., designated herein as exemplary is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other such embodiments. Particular quality or fitness of the examples indicated herein as exemplary is neither intended nor should be inferred.

An example of the process according to the invention may use, as illustrated in FIG. 1 , different steps.

At step 1 , a video sequence can be acquired using the camera as a first starting information, for the measurement of the actual status of the skin of the user as a first data. A starting image of an external body portion, as the face, can be recorded.

The processing in step 1 may include the extraction of areas of interest in the image, for example by recognizing characteristic features in the image, such as the presence of eyes, nose or lips. From this sub-images can be generated that cover more specifically the areas of interest containing the clinical sign or signs that the evaluation targets. For example, from a complete image of the face, sub-images of the comers of the lips, the upper lip and the under-eye area can be extracted.

These sub-images may be enlarged, if need be, to make wrinkles or fine lines appear more clearly. It is also desirable to adjust the calorimetry if necessary, to remove the influence of tanning, for example.

At step 1 , any appropriate device, application or algorithm device can be used to measure a user’s external body portion in a first time frame. The measurement can be much more simple than an image, for example a length of a wrinkle or a color of a spot.

Next a treatment is carried out in step 11 to compare these images to reference images of a databases, with a possible view to attributing a grade to the clinical sign supposed to appear on the measurement. This treatment may involve any algorithm that can compare the degree to which two images resemble each other, i.e. the image whose reference grade needs to be allocated, and the images illustrating the different grades.

Optionally, a score and/or any useful information related to the clinical sign whose severity was evaluated can be displayed to the user. The score is for example displayed on a monitor. This way, the user can obtain some information about its current status of skin.

Scientific knowledge and publications can be entered into the system according to the invention at step 12.

As a second starting information, a data depicting a personal information of the user is also required. This data acquisition of step 21 can result of a questionnaire filed by the user and requiring information concerning his way of life or his environment for example.

Alternatively, a self-assessment can be asked to the user as second data, which may for example result of responses of the user to a detailed questionnaire about sensations or visual observations of the state of his skin under different conditions of observations. An example would be a self-evaluation of its resistance to sun or his resistance to a stress.

The system according to the invention can also be equipped with a geolocation feature, for example a GPS chip. Alternatively, the geolocation is performed by the telephone network. The GPS captures at step 22 data about the localization of the user for example can be processed with the response to the questionnaire and with the measurement of the actual status of the skin. According to the invention a GPS location file might be processed with time stamp and time zone to record GPS location (Latitude, longitude, elevation).

All the recorded data may be processed in step 2 for the determination of an accelerator and of an associated accelerator rate, in view of determining the future of the skin in step 3.

The accelerator can be selected from the user’s personal information after processing. For example, the user can share, as a personal information, his place of residence. From such an information, one can deduce that an accelerator might be a solar exposure.

This accelerator is processed, optionally with possible other data such as the degree of pollution of a geographical zone indicated by the user, to determine an accelerator rate of the skin of the user due to his environment and to his lifestyle. From determination of the accelerator and the accelerator rate, curves of ageing of the selected external body portion can be generated that represent its progression over the time, with images or with in different scores, for various clinical signs.

All the curves resulting from the evaluation can then be analyzed to show the relationship between some curve shapes and the second data processing.

Thanks to the process according to the invention, the user can be informed of:

The current state of its skin, so today’s state of the skin,

The evolution of its skin under the conditions recorded as second data, which can be either representative of the future or Active ones for comparison, or only Active ones changing conditions or only real ones depending on the needs of the consumer.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary facial health and beauty assistant (FHBA) system 100 comprising an FHBA client platform 110 and an FHBA service platform 120 communicatively coupled through a network 130. In one embodiment, FHBA client platform 110 is a smartphone, tablet computer or other mobile computing device, although the present invention is not so limited. As illustrated in FIG. 2, exemplary FHBA client platform 1 10 comprises a processor 1 12, memory 1 14, a camera 115, a user interface 1 16 and a communication interface 1 18 over which an FHBA client interface 140 may be implemented. FHBA client interface 140 provides the primary portal through which a user accesses FHBA system 100.

In one embodiment of the present invention, FHBA service platform 120 comprises one or more server computers, each comprising a processor 122, a memory 124, a user interface 126 and a communication interface. These resources of FHBA service platform 120 may be utilized to implement an FHBA service interface 152, machine learning logic 154 and a storage memory 156. Storage memory 156 represents a sufficient amount of volatile and persistent memory to embody the invention. Storage memory 156 may contain vast amounts of encoded human knowledge as well as space for the private profile of a single user. Storage memory 156 may further store processor instructions that, when executed by one or more processors 122, perform some task or procedure for embodiments of the invention. Storage memory 156 may further store user models (coefficients, weights, processor instructions, etc.) that are operable with machine learning logic 154 to predict the aging of the user’s face according to his lifestyle. Exemplary FHBA service interface 152 provides the infrastructure by which network access to FHBA services are both facilitated and controlled. FHBA client interface 140 and FHBA service interface 152 communicate via a suitable communication link 145 using the signaling and data transport protocols for which communication interface 118 and communication interface 128 are constructed or otherwise configured. FHBA service interface 156 may implement suitable Internet hosting services as well as authentication and other security mechanisms that allow access only to authorized users and protect the users’ private data. Additionally, FHBA service interface 152 may realize an application programming interface (API) that affords FHBA client interface 140 communications with, for example, machine learning logic 154. Those having skill in the art will recognize other front-end services that can be used in conjunction with the present invention.

Machine learning logic 154 provides the infrastructure for embodiments of the invention to learn from and make predictions about data without being explicitly programmed to do so. In certain embodiments, machine learning logic 154 implements one or more convolutional neural networks (CNNs), the models for which may be trained using open source datasets or crowdsourced data sets, as explained below. Other machine learning techniques may be used in conjunction with the present invention including, but not limited to, decision tree learning, association rule learning, artificial neural networks, deep learning, inductive logic programming, support vector machines, clustering, Bayesian networks, reinforcement learning, representation learning, similarity and metric learning, sparse dictionary learning, genetic algorithms, rule-based machine learning and learning classifiers. Additional techniques described in U.S. Patent No. 8,442,321, U.S. Patent No. 9,015,083, U.S. Patent No. 9,536,293, U.S. Patent No. 9,324,022, and U.S. PG Publication No. 2014/0376819 Al, all of which are incorporated herein by reference, may be used with the present invention. In the descriptions that follow, it will be assumed that machine learning logic implements a convolutional neural network, although the present invention is not so limited. Those having skill in artificial intelligence will recognize numerous techniques that can be used in conjunction with the present invention without departing from the spirit and intended scope thereof.

Embodiments of the invention determine a prediction of face aging for a user based on first datas of the user taken by camera 116 on FHBA client platform 110 and on data given by the user about his lifestyle on the user interface 116. In certain embodiments, the first data of the user’s face are preferably obtained under conditions of uniform lighting that is consistent over time. To that end and referring to FIG. 2, embodiments of the invention provide for a mirror device 140 that includes mirror surface 144 circumscribed by a ring illuminator 142. This configuration is intended to define a temporally constant standard of illumination. When the invention is so embodied, temporally varying characteristics in first data a user’s face are more readily recognized and labeled. The user interface 1 16 can be a survey or a quizz.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram by which an example interaction with an embodiment of the invention can be explained. The interaction of FIG. 2 is simple by design and is no way intended to be limiting. The description of FIG. 2 is intended to illustrate functionality of the configuration illustrated in FIG. 2. Further features of the invention, beyond those described with reference to FIG. 3, will be discussed below.

In operation 210, a user may generate a first data of his face, such as by camera 1 16 of FHBA client platform 1 10. This may be achieved with or without the illumination standard discussed above. In operation 215, the user’s first data is sent to FHBA service platform 120. This may be achieved by suitable communication protocols shared between FHBA client platform 110 and FHBA service platform 120 to realize communication link 145.

A user may respond to a set of question to generate a description of his lifestyle, explaining for example where he lives, what is his degree of nervous stress or what is his activity in order to generate a data.

Once the analysis of data issued from 210 have been completed, process 200 may transition to operation 215, whereby the analyses results and/or updates of analysis are sent to the processor to generate an image that takes into account the complete analysis resulting from step 210.

In operation 220, first data analysis and second data analysis and machine learning is conducted to predict the user’s face aging. Machine learning logic 154 may perform analyses that determine, among other things, apparent age, i.e., the subjective age of the user estimated from a visual appearance of the user’s face; evenness of facial skin tone (is there blotching, age/sun spots, acne scarring and other blemishes); the presence of stress as seen in under eye puffiness, dark circles, overall tone drooping in eyelids/comers of the mouth, fine lines and eye redness; hydration level, often referred to as plump or slick, which presents as a lack of ashy-ness, skin flaking, dullness and fine lines; shine - a nonlinear parameter where the ideal is a moderate amount of shine; condition of pores - a reduced appearance of pores is desirable as it provides a healthy, youthful and smooth skin texture; the presence of acne as characterized by red/inflamed pimples and scarring; the presence of wrinkles, a fold, ridge or crease in the skin may be discovered through the analysis; the presence of sagging, i.e., a droopy appearance of soft tissue caused by elasticity reduction and the presence of crow’s feet, a branching wrinkle specifically located at the outer comer of a person’s eye. Other conditions of the skin may be determined by machine learning logic 154. Further details of the analyses are provided below.

Once the analysis of data has been completed from 225, process 200 may transition to operation, whereby the analyses results and/or updates of analysis are sent to the processor to generate an image that takes into account the complete analysis resulting from step 225.

In operation 225, it is determined whether the analysis is complete and, responsive to a positive determination thereof, process 200 may transition to operation 230, whereby FHBA service interface 152 gives a prediction of the skin ageing of the user to FHBA client interface 140 taking into account both the image and a lifestyle condition.

Alternatively, data about the lifestyle of the consumer can be generated by the service platform 120. The, the image may be generated at step 210 on the basis of the data communicated by the service platform 120. At the end on the process 200, the prediction might occur under data coming either from the client platform 1 10 or from the service platform 120. Comparison between predictions based on data from the client platform 1 10 or from the service platform 120 might be proposed to the consumer.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the present invention may be embodied as a system, method or computer program product. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a“circuit,” “module” or“system.” Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer readable medium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.

Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may be utilized. The computer readable medium may be, for example, but is not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readable storage medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a solid state disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, a phase change memory storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of the present invention may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, e.g., an object oriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like, or a conventional procedural programming language, such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user’s computer, partly on the user’s computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user’s computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user’s computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider). It is to be understood that the software for the computer systems of the present invention embodiments may be developed by one of ordinary skill in the computer arts based on the functional descriptions contained in the specification and flow charts illustrated in the drawings. Further, any references herein of software performing various functions generally refer to computer systems or processors performing those functions under software control.

The computer systems of the present invention embodiments may alternatively be implemented by any type of hardware and/or other processing circuitry. The various functions of the computer systems may be distributed in any manner among any quantity of software modules or units, processing or computer systems and/or circuitry, where the computer or processing systems may be disposed locally or remotely of each other and communicate via any suitable communications medium (e.g., LAN, WAN, Intranet, Internet, hardwire, modem connection, wireless, etc.). The foregoing examples are illustrative of certain functionality of embodiments of the invention and are not intended to be limiting. Indeed, other functionality and other possible use cases will be apparent to the skilled artisan upon review of this disclosure.