Compensation on Impedance of the Stratum Corneum

Abstract

This study aims at compensation of the skin moisture level using skin impedance and SR factor. SR factor is related with the current diffusion into the skin layer. To efficiently analyze the current diffusion on the skin model, we used an electromagnetic simulation program called Ansys 10.0 Emag. We confirmed that the measured value decreases as the electric current gets more diffused to the layer below the horny layer. In order to conduct actual experiments based on the simulated result, we manufactured special electrodes with 24 pins by arranging 0.8mm-diameter electrodes every 0.5mm, in a <TEX>$3{\times}8$</TEX> array. By simultaneously achieving both impedance value and SR value of skin with the manufactured electrodes, we compared the skin moisture level using the existing equipment to the skin moisture level applied using the skin impedance as well as the SR factor developed in this study. The correlation coefficient between the skin moisture level achieved from the existing equipment and the reference value was 0.615 (p<0.01), whereas the correlation coefficient between the skin moisture achieved from the regression equation in this study was 0.677 (p<0.01). Accordingly, it was confirmed that applying SR factor additionally improves the moisture level more precisely.