Quantitative Study on Tongue Images according to Exterior, Interior, Cold and Heat Patterns

표리한열의 설 특성에 관한 정량적 연구

  • Eo Yun-Hye (Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, School of Electronics and Imformation, Kyunghee University) ;
  • Kim Je-Gyun (Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, School of Electronics and Imformation, Kyunghee University) ;
  • Yoo Hwa-Seung (Dept. of Oncology, College of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon University) ;
  • Kim Jong-Yeol (Department of Medical Research, Korea institute of Oriental Medicine) ;
  • Park Kyung-Mo (Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, School of Electronics and Imformation, Kyunghee University)
  • 어윤혜 (경희대학교 전자정보학부 동서의료공학과) ;
  • 김제균 (경희대학교 전자정보학부 동서의료공학과) ;
  • 유화승 (대전대학교 한의학과 종양과) ;
  • 김종열 (한국 한의학 연구원) ;
  • 박경모 (경희대학교 전자정보학부 동서의료공학과)
  • Published : 2006.06.30

Abstract

Tongue diagnosis is an important diagnostic method in traditional Oriental medicine. It has been especially accepted that quantitative analysis of tongue images allows the accurate diagnosis of the exterior-interior and cold-heat patterns of a patient. However, to ensure stable and reliable results, the color reproduction of such images must first be error-tree. Moreover, tongue diagnosis is much influenced by the surrounding illumination and subjective color recognition, so it has to be performed objectively and quantitatively using a digital diagnostic machine. In this study, 457 tongue images of outpatients were collected using the Digital Tongue Inspection System. Through statistical analysis, the result shows that the heat and cold patterns can be distinguished clearly based on the hue value of the tongue images. The average hue value (1.00) of the tongue's image in the cold pattern is higher than that in the heat pattern (0.99).

Keywords