• 한국한의학연구원논문집
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• 제14권3호
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• pp.89-95
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• 2008

A tongue shows physiological and clinicopathological changes of inner organs. Visual inspection of a tongue is not only convenient but also non-invasive. To develop an automat ic tongue diagnosis system for an objective and standardized diagnosis, the separation of the tongue are a from a facial image and the detection of coatings, spots and cracks are inevitable but difficult since the colors of a tongue, lips, and skin in a mouth as well as those of tongue furs and body are similar. The propose d method includes preprocessing with down-sampling and edge enhancement, over-segmentation, detecting positions with a local minimum over shading from the structure of a tongue, and correcting local minima or detecting edge with color difference. The proposed method produces the region of a segmented tongue, and then decomposes the color components of the region into hue, saturation and brightness, resulting in classifying the regions of tongue furs(coatings) into kinds of coatings and substance and segmenting them. Spots are detected by using local maxima and the variation of saturation, and cracks are searched by using local minima and the directivity of dark areas in brightness. The results illustrate the segmented region with effective information, excluding a non-tongue region and also give us accurate discrimination of coatings and the precise detection of spots and cracks. It can be used to make an objective and standardized diagnosis for an u-Healthcare system as well as a home care system.

• 한국한의학연구원논문집
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• 제13권2호통권20호
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• pp.47-52
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• 2007

In Oriental medicine, the status of tongue is the important indicator to diagnose one's health, because it represents physiological and clinicopathological changes of inner parts of the body. The method of tongue diagnosis is not only convenient but also non-invasive, therefore, tongue diagnosis is one of the most widely used in Oriental medicine. But tongue diagnosis is affected by examination circumstances a lot. It depends on a light source, degrees of an angle, doctor's condition and so on. So it is not easy to make an objective and standardized tongue diagnosis. As part of way to solve this problem, in this study, we tried to design a discriminant function for white and yellow coating with multi-dimensional color vectors. There were 62 subjects involved in this study, among them 48 subjects diagnosed as white-coated tongue and 14 subjects diagnosed as yellow-coated tongue by oriental doctors. And their tongue images were acquired by a well-made Digital Tongue Diagnosis System. From those acquired tongue images, each coating section were extracted by oriental doctors, and then mean values of multi -dimensional color vectors in each coating section were calculated. By statistical analysis, two significant vectors, R in RGB space and H in HSV space, were found that they were able to describe the difference between white coating section and yellow coating section very well. Using these two values, we designed the discriminant function for coating classification and examined how good it works. As a result, the overall accuracy of coating classification was 98.4%. We can expect that the discriminant function for other coatings can be obtained in a similar way. Furthermore, if an automated segmentation algorithm of tongue coating is combined with these discriminant functions, an automated tongue coating diagnosis can be accomplished.

• 한국한의학연구원논문집
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• 제13권3호
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• pp.119-124
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• 2007

Introduction: In Oriental medicine, the status of tongue is the important indicator to diagnose one's health, because it represents physiological and clinicopathological changes of inner parts of the body. The method of tongue diagnosis is not only convenient but also non-invasive, so tongue diagnosis is most widely used in Oriental medicine. By the way, since tongue diagnosis is affected by examination circumstances a lot, its performance depends on a light source, degrees of an angle, a medical doctor's condition etc. Therefore, it is not easy to make an objective and standardized tongue diagnosis. In order to solve this problem, in this study, we tried to design a discriminant function for thick and thin coating with color vectors of preprocessed image. Method: 52 subjects, who were diagnosed as white-coated tongue, were involved. Among them, 45 subjects diagnosed as thin coating and 7 subjects diagnosed as thick coating by oriental medical doctors, and then their tongue images were obtained from a digital tongue diagnosis system. Using those acquired tongue images, we implemented two steps: Preprocessing and image analyzing. The preprocessing part of this method includes histogram equalization and histogram stretching at each color component, especially, intensity and saturation. It makes the difference between tongue substance and tongue coating was more visible, so that we can separate tongue coating easily. Next part, we analyzed the characteristic of color values and found the threshold to divide tongue area into coating area. Then, from tongue coating image, it is possible to extract the variables that were important to classify thick and thin coating. Result : By statistical analysis, two significant vectors, associated with G, were found, which were able to describe the difference between thick and thin coating very well. Using these two variables, we designed the discriminant function for coating classification and examined its performance. As a result, the overall accuracy of thick and thin coating classification was 92.3%. Discussion : From the result, we can expect that the discriminant function is applicable to other coatings in a similar way. Also, it can be used to make an objective and standardized diagnosis.

• 대한중풍순환신경학회지
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• 제9권1호
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• pp.1-7
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• 2008

Objectives : We questioned whether the tongue diagnosis is effective for judging seriousness of cerebrovascular accidents. This study is about the relationship between tongue diagnosis and National Institute of Health Stroke Scale(NIHSS) in acute stroke patients. Methods : 738 subjects were recruited from the patients admitted to the department of internal medicine at Kyung-Hee University oriental medical center, Kyung-Hee University East-West Neo Medical Center, Kyungwon university Incheon oriental medical center, Kyungwon university Songpa oriental medical center and DongGuk university Ilsan oriental medical center from April 2007 to August 2008. We looked at the tongue as in three dimensions of tongue color, tongue fur color and tongue body. And, we calculated NIHSS means according to the subtypes of three dimensions. Results : 1. In the Tongue color, from the most commom to least common colors were pale red, red, pale, bluish purple, and ect. The NIHSS mean score of red is significantly higher than pale and pale red. 2. In the Tongue fur color, white fur was the most common, and then yellow fur, etc. There is no significant difference among three subtypes in the NIHSS mean score. 3. In the Tongue body, etc. is the most common, followed by teeth-marked tongue, enlarged tongue, blood patchy tongue, and mirror tongue. The NIHSS mean score of teeth-marked tongue is significantly lower than blood patchy tongue and mirror tongue. Conclusions : The tongue color and the tongue body are useful indexes for judging seriousness of cerebrovascular accidents presented by NIHSS. But in our study, the tongue fur color was not useful. Further study is necessary on the tongue fur.

• 전자공학회논문지SC
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• 제45권6호
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• pp.123-131
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• 2008

한의학에서 혀의 상태는 인체 내부의 생리적 병리적 변화와 같은 건강 상태를 진단하는 중요한 지표로 활용된다. 혀의 상태를 진단하는 방법(설진)은 편리할 뿐 아니라 비침습적이므로, 한의학에서 널리 활용되고 있다. 하지만, 설진은 광원이나 환자의 자세, 의사의 건강 조건과 같은 검사 환경에 따라 많은 영향을 받는다. 객관적이고 표준화된 진단을 위한 자동 설진 시스템을 개발하기 위하여 촬영된 얼굴 영상으로부터 혀를 영역분할하고 설태를 분류하는 것은 필수적이지만 혀와 입술, 입 근처의 피부색이 서로 유사하므로 쉽지 않은 일이다. 제안된 방법은 전처리 과정과 영역분할, 혀의 구조로부터 발생하는 음영 영역의 지역 최소값 위치 검색, 지역 최소값의 교정, 컬러의 차이를 최대로 하는 위치를 찾는 컬러 경계면 탐색, 척의 기하적인 특성에 일치하는 경계면 선택, 경계면 평활화로 구성되어 있으며, 여기서 전처리 과정은 계산량의 감소를 위한 부 표본화, 히스토그램 평활화, 경계면 강화를 수행한다. 이러한 시스템적인 과정을 거치면, 영역분할된 혀를 획득할 수 있게 된다. 제안된 방법으로 분할된 영역은 초과적으로 혀가 아닌 영역을 제외해 낼 뿐 아니라 정확한 진단을 위해 중요한 정보를 제공함을 한의사의 진단 유효도 평가점수를 통해 확인할 수 있었다. 제안된 방법은 진단의 객관화와 표준화에 기여할 뿐만 아니라 u-Healthcare 시스템에도 활용 가능하다.

• 동의생리병리학회지
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• 제22권1호
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• pp.262-266
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• 2008

We plan to make the standardization of the pattern identifications for stroke and differentiate them by tongue diagnosis. We make a case report form which has questionnaires for tongue diagnosis in stroke patients. And we collected cases from the multi center network which consists of twelve university hospitals and one local hospital. The cases confirmed by diagnosis of medical specialists and residents are 321 cases. They are divided into Qi Defficiency 30.84%, Dampness& Phlegm 25.55%, Fire & Heat 22.43%, Eum Defficiency 18.69% and Blood Stasis 2.49%. We analyzed the markers which classified into the color of tongue body, the color of fur, the quality of fur, the dryness of tongue, the shape of tongue. To make a stroke pattern identification standard, we must try variable ways.

• 대한한의학회지
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• 제27권2호
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• pp.134-144
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• 2006

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).

• 대한한의진단학회지
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• 제19권1호
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• pp.1-10
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• 2015

Objectives The purpose of this study was to survey the status of clinical use of a computerized tongue diagnosis system (CTDS) Methods We searched domestic/international articles using the CTDS from online medical databases including OASIS, NDSL and pubmed. We selected articles on clinical application or reliability of CTDS but excluded articles on mechanical design or software programming for developing a new CTDS. Finally we found 15 articles and classified the articles according to the study purpose. Results Out of the 15 articles, 8 were focused on the clinical application including halitosis, cold/heat syndrome, lung cancer, xerostomia etc. Other 5 articles were aimed at evaluating and improving reliability of CTDS. The other 2 articles were studied for development of differential diagnostic criteria on tongue coating thickness. Conclusion We found out that until now the researches on clinical application of CTDS mainly had been performed for producing a variety of CTDSs. Considering the importance of the tongue color in the traditional Korean medicine, we suggest that at first standard operating procedure for CTDS be developed and researches to develop differential diagnostic criteria on tongue body/coating color be performed and then explore its applications.

• 한국인터넷방송통신학회논문지
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• 제16권4호
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• pp.125-131
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• 2016

한방 설진 시스템의 자동화 과정에서 혀 영상 분할은 가장 중요한 분야이다. 그러나 대부분의 한방 설진 시스템의 혀 영상 분할 방식은 사용자 기반의 메뉴얼 방식이나 반자동 방식으로 제안되어 왔다. 따라서 본 논문에서는 한방 설진 시스템의 완전 자동화를 위해서 기존의 스네이크 알고리즘을 기반으로 한 혀 영상 분할의 새로운 방법을 제안한다. 제안한 방법은 기존의 스네이크 알고리즘을 개선한 방법으로서 설진을 위한 혀 영상 특성을 이용하여 포인트들이 안에서 밖으로 역추적하면서 스네이크 에너지 함수가 최소화될 수 있도록 내부 에너지 함수를 개선하였고, 외부 에너지를 계산하기 위해서는 계층적 공간 필터링 방법을 적용하여 잡음에 강인한 특징을 갖는다. 또한 제안한 방법은 표본영상 실험과 실영상 실험을 수행한 결과, 기존 스네이크 알고리즘보다 배경 잡음에 강인함을 보였으며, 임의의 포인트 한 개를 선택하고 해당 포인트의 시작점, 중간점, 끝점에서의 에너지 값을 분석하여 국소적 최저치에 빠지지 않는 강인함을 보였다.

• 동의생리병리학회지
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• 제19권5호
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• pp.1437-1442
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• 2005

Tongue Diagnosis is the important traditional oriental medical diagnosis method that observes not only the general physiological state but also some kinds of disease. However, manual tongue diagnosis is much influenced by surrounding illumination. Therefore, Digital Tongue Inspection System(DigiTis) is needed for the quantification of objective tongue information, In this research, Tongue images of 98 malignant Neoplasm patients and 34 normal persons were collected by Digital Tongue Inspection System. Statistical analysis of tongue images and patient data indicates that cancer group has more blue-purple components in tongue body(舌質) and yellow components in tongue coating than normal group. Also, there are a lot of rose-pink components in the cancer group of second stage and blue-purple components in the cancer group of third or fourth stage. Our study shows that tongue image is a useful index for distinction between disease and health. Furthermore we need more extended research through the additional sampling and various disease.