ABSTRACT
Documentation of skin and facial skin, in particular, has evolved with the developments of digital imaging camera equipment and the explosive miniaturization and exponential growth in personal computing power. In the past, a camera with some light source, typically a flash or daylight, was adequate for recording the attributes of the skin or of skin lesions. Dermatologists developed extensive personal libraries of 35mm slides depicting skin conditions of interest and published books (atlases) with collections of images for educational purposes. These images have scientific value and many dermatology departments hired medical photographers to ensure consistent image quality. In the last 5 to 10 years, photographic film has become all but obsolete as digital image sensor pixel counts have increased and magnetic disk storage and computer memory costs have dramatically decreased. Computers have been developed, which are fast and with essentially limitless memory, making it possible to store large collections of images in small footprint instruments-desktop and laptop computers. The developments in memory media make it possible to have access to very large image caches at the personal level, gigabyte to terabyte.
