The Development of a Tongue Diagnosis System and the Evaluation of Reproducibility

설진 시스템 개발 및 재현성 평가

The tongue diagnosis is a diagnostic method in the oriental medicine that uses shape, substance, coating, and movement of the tongue to determine the condition of health and disease characteristics in human. Since this information, however, could be affected by subjective sense and visual information, it is difficult to obtain the objective and reproducible results. This research aims at building a reproducible tongue diagnosis system using color chart that is attached close to the face contact region. The picture of color chart is taken simultaneously with a tongue and applied to color revision. The system, in addition, is focused on providing a clear tongue image through securing a sufficient photographing distance with a surface coating mirror. The lightning part which can suppress the reflection by sputum in maximum is implemented for the objectification and quantification of the tongue diagnosis system. The face contact region is designed for consideration of a testee's convenience. To evaluate the reproducibility of the system, the CVs (coefficient of variance, %) of $L{\ast}$, $a{\ast}$ and $b{\ast}$ of red, green and blue regions in color chart are calculated, respectively. The results of all CVs shows that the tongue diagnosis system is re liable and those consequences contribute to the objectification and quantification of the tongue diagnosis system.