JP2002172179A - Apparatus and method for laser depilation - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a laser depilation apparatus for automatically perform a laser depilating treatment and to provide a laser depilation method. SOLUTION: The laser depilation apparatus is provided with a laser irradiating part 23 for intermittently irradiating a laser beam, a movement mechanism 24 for changing a laser irradiating position concerning a skin surface by moving the laser irradiating part unless the laser beam is irradiated and a control part for controlling the movement mechanism so as to irradiate a previously set whole irradiation area on the skin surface. The apparatus repeats an operation for irradiating a certain position in the irradiation area with the laser beam, and then, irradiating a succeeding position separated from the above position so that the whole irradiation area is irradiated with the laser beam.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a laser hair removal apparatus and a hair removal method for performing hair removal by irradiating a hair beam on a skin surface with a laser beam.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art This laser hair removal method includes, for example,
This is a method of performing hair removal by irradiating a laser beam to hair roots of body hair such as the axilla and forearm. The light energy of the laser beam applied to the hair root portion is absorbed by the melanin pigment in the hair root and becomes thermal energy, which has the effect of destroying the hair root tissue including the dermal papilla and losing the ability to regenerate body hair.

[0003] Such a laser hair removal method has recently been used as a method that is rapid, has little pain, and has few side effects.
It is getting attention.

[0004]

Such a laser hair removal operation is performed manually by an operator. That is, when performing such laser hair removal, the operator operates the laser emitting unit that emits the laser beam, confirms the hair root portion of the body hair, and matches the position of the hair root portion with the irradiation position of the laser beam. After that, a laser beam is emitted from the laser emitting unit. By repeating such an operation for the number of body hairs, the hair is removed from a certain area on the skin surface.

[0005] Therefore, in order to perform hair removal for a certain area, it is necessary to perform extremely complicated work, and the work time for the work becomes long.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and has as its object to provide a laser hair removal apparatus and a laser hair removal method capable of automatically performing a laser hair removal operation.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention according to claim 1 is a laser hair removal apparatus for performing hair removal by irradiating a hair part on a skin surface with a laser beam, wherein the laser emission emits a laser beam intermittently. And an irradiation position changing mechanism for changing the laser irradiation position with respect to the skin surface by moving the laser emitting unit when the laser beam is not emitted, and by controlling the irradiation position changing mechanism, a preset setting on the skin surface is performed. And a control unit for irradiating the laser beam to the entire irradiated dose area, irradiating the laser beam to a position in the irradiation area, and repeating the operation of irradiating the laser beam to the next position separated from this position Thereby, the entirety of the irradiation area is irradiated with a laser beam.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided the laser apparatus according to the first aspect, further comprising a cooling mechanism for cooling the skin surface after the irradiation of the laser beam.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the irradiation area is a rectangular area having a long side in the longitudinal direction of the human body.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a laser hair removal method for performing hair removal by irradiating a laser beam having a beam diameter R to a body hair portion on the skin surface. A mowing step of mowing so as to have the following length, and after irradiating a laser beam to a certain position in a predetermined irradiation area on the skin surface, irradiating the laser beam to a next position separated from this position. A laser beam irradiation step of irradiating the entire irradiation area with a laser beam by repeating.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the fourth aspect of the present invention, after the laser beam irradiating step, a cooling step of cooling a laser beam irradiation position on the skin surface is further provided.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a laser hair removal apparatus according to the present invention.

In the laser hair removal apparatus according to the present invention, unlike a conventional hair removal apparatus, a hair removal operation is not performed manually by an operator, but a laser beam is sequentially applied to the entire irradiation area on a skin surface in a preset irradiation area. By irradiating the hair, the hair loss of the entire irradiation area is automatically executed.

However, when the laser beam is simply sequentially irradiated to the entire irradiation area, the skin may feel excessive heat or burn the skin due to the thermal energy of the laser beam. For this reason, in the laser hair removal apparatus according to the present invention, after irradiating a laser beam to a certain position in the irradiation region, the operation of irradiating the laser beam to the next position separated from this position is repeated, so that the entire irradiation region is Is applied to the laser beam to prevent the above-described problem from occurring.

As shown in FIG. 1, the hair removal apparatus according to the present invention is for irradiating a laser beam to a specific irradiation area on the body 44 of the hair removal subject who lies on a bed 43, and includes a control box 21. , A laser emitting unit 23 provided with a CCD camera 22, a moving mechanism 24 for moving the laser emitting unit 23, and a control unit 10 described later.

The laser emitting section 23 has three joints 31,
It is connected to the moving mechanism 24 via an articulated arm 35 having 32 and 33. The moving mechanism 24 is connected to the control box 21 by a lifting member 45 so as to be able to move up and down. The vertical position of the moving mechanism 24 and the posture of the articulated arm 35 are manually adjusted by an operator.

The moving mechanism 24 has an X-axis drive section 41 and a Y-axis drive section 42. These X-axis drive units 41 and Y
Each of the shaft drive units 42 has a configuration in which a motor and a linear guide are built therein. The articulated arm 35 is
The shaft drive section 41 reciprocates in the X direction (a direction perpendicular to the paper surface in FIG. 1), and the Y axis drive section 42 reciprocates in the Y direction (left and right directions in FIG. 1). For this reason, CC
The D camera 22 and the laser emitting unit 23 are moved in the X and Y directions by the X-axis driving unit 41 and the Y-axis driving unit 42.

The X-axis driving section 41 and the Y-axis driving section 42 constituting the moving mechanism 24 function as an irradiation position changing mechanism for changing the laser irradiation position on the skin surface by moving the laser emitting section 23. .

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the laser emitting section 23 in the laser hair removal apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a schematic partial sectional view showing a connection relationship between the laser emitting section 23 and the laser light source 51 and the like. .

The laser emitting section 23 includes a laser light source 51
And a red light generator 52 via an optical fiber 54. In addition, a shutter mechanism 53 is provided in the connection path by the optical fiber 54.

The laser light source 51 emits a laser beam used for hair removal. For example, the laser light source 51 emits a laser beam having a wavelength of 1064 nm.
laser) is used. Further, the red light generating section 5
Reference numeral 2 denotes a laser beam for emitting a red guide light used as a pointer for confirming an emission position. For example, a helium neon laser (He) emitting a laser beam having a wavelength of 632.8 nm is used. −
Ne laser) is used.

The shutter mechanism 53 is for selectively guiding the laser beam emitted from the laser light source 51 and the guide light emitted from the red light generating section 52 to the laser emitting section 23. . The shutter mechanism 53 normally connects the red light generating unit 52 and the laser emitting unit 23. Then, a control unit 10 described later
When receiving the instruction, the laser light source 51 and the laser emission unit 23 are connected.

The laser emitting section 23 has an optical system including a pair of meniscus lenses 56 and 57 disposed in the lens barrel 55 and a sapphire glass 58 disposed at the tip of the lens barrel 55. The laser beam or the guide light emitted from the tip of the optical fiber 54 is transmitted to the pair of meniscus lenses 56 and 57 and the sapphire glass 58.
After passing through, the skin surface is irradiated. At this time, by the action of the pair of meniscus lenses 56 and 57, the laser beam or the guide light is once converged and then diverged.

A slide frame 61 movable in the axial direction of the lens barrel 55 is provided outside the lens barrel 55 in the laser emitting section 23.
Are arranged. The slide frame 61 is connected to a guide plate 63 via a pair of tubular bodies 62. Further, the slide frame 61 can be fixed at three positions separated at equal intervals in the axial direction of the lens barrel 55 by the action of the positioning mechanism 65.

The pair of tubular members 62 are used to regulate the position of the guide plate 63 and to blow off the depilated body hair from the skin surface. Near the distal ends of the pair of tubular bodies 62, air jets 67 for blowing off the depilated body hair from the skin surface are arranged so as to face each other. The base end sides of the pair of tubular bodies 62 are connected to an air supply source such as a compressor (not shown) via a conduit 68.

The guide plate 63 regulates the position of the laser emitting section 23 with respect to the skin surface and cools the skin surface after the laser beam irradiation. The guide plate 63 is formed of a heat conductive metal plate having a circular hole 64 formed in the center thereof. A pair of Peltier elements 66 for cooling the guide plate 63 itself are provided on both sides of the hole 64 in the guide plate 63.

When performing the laser hair removal operation, the guide plate 6
3 comes into contact with the skin surface. For this reason, the slide frame 61
When the guide plate 63 connected through the slide frame 61 and the pair of tubular bodies 62 is moved by moving the slide surface 61, the skin surface and the pair of meniscus lenses 56,
The distance between the optical system 57 and the optical system made of sapphire glass 58 is changed. Thereby, the beam diameter of the laser beam or the guide light on the skin surface is changed.

For example, in this embodiment, when the skin surface is arranged at the position A shown in FIG. 3, the beam diameter R of the laser beam or the guide light becomes 3 mm.
When the skin surface is arranged at the position B shown in FIG. 3, the beam diameter R of the laser beam or the guide light becomes 4 mm,
Further, when the skin surface is arranged at the position C shown in FIG. 3, the beam diameter R of the laser beam or the guide light is 5
mm.

Here, the above-mentioned beam diameter means a diameter at which the intensity becomes 1 / e ^{2 of the} strongest value when the laser beam has a Gaussian distribution.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the main electrical configuration of the laser hair removal apparatus according to the present invention.

The laser hair removal apparatus according to the present invention comprises a CPU 11 for executing a logical operation, a ROM 12 for storing an operation program necessary for controlling the apparatus, and a RAM 13 for temporarily storing data and the like during control. Control unit 1
0 is provided. The control unit 10 includes an interface 14
Are connected to the CCD camera 22, the shutter mechanism 53, the X-axis drive unit 41, and the Y-axis drive unit 42 via the.

Next, the laser hair removal operation performed by the laser hair removal apparatus having the above-described configuration will be described.

When the hair removal operation is performed, the hair at the portion where hair removal is to be performed is cut so that the length thereof is equal to or less than the beam diameter R of the laser beam. Thereafter, the person to be depilated is laid on the bed 43 and the body 44 is fixed on the bed 43 with a belt or the like. For example, when hair removal is performed only on a part of the body 44 such as the lower leg or the forearm, only that part may be fixed.

Next, FIG.
The auxiliary plate 71 shown in FIG. Then, if necessary, the auxiliary plate 71 is attached to the skin surface using an adhesive tape or the like.

The auxiliary plate 71 is used to specify an irradiation area 72 to be irradiated with the laser beam and to prevent the other parts from being irradiated with the laser beam. The auxiliary plate 71 has a configuration in which a rectangular opening defining an irradiation area 72 is formed in the center of a thin sheet made of a synthetic resin having a light-shielding property. The length of one side of the opening defining the irradiation area 72 is XL, and the length of the other side is YL.
It has become.

When the auxiliary plate 71 is placed on the body 44, the long side having the length XL is placed in the longitudinal direction of the body 44. That is, for example, when hair removal is performed on the lower leg or the forearm, the longitudinal direction of the irradiation region 72 is made to coincide with the longitudinal direction of the lower leg or the forearm.

This is because the lower leg or forearm of the body 44 normally has a curvature in a direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction, but does not have a curvature in the longitudinal direction. Alternatively, by aligning the longitudinal direction of the forearm, it is not necessary to move the laser emitting unit 23 in a direction to approach or separate from the body 44, so that the hair removal operation can be performed efficiently.

When the auxiliary plate 71 is placed on the body 44, the laser emitting section 23 is moved to the irradiation area 72 by adjusting the articulated arm 35 and the elevating member 45 shown in FIG.
Move to the position opposite to. More specifically, the shutter mechanism 53 causes the red light generating section 52 and the laser emitting section 23
The guide light is emitted from the laser emitting unit 23 in a state where the light is connected. Then, the beam spot by the guide light is moved to the origin position 73 on the auxiliary plate 71.
2 and 3 so that the guide plate 63 shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 comes into contact with the skin surface.
Adjust the position of 3.

When the installation of the auxiliary plate 71 and the adjustment of the position of the laser emitting section 23 are completed, the hair removal operation is automatically executed. That is, under the control of the control unit 10 shown in FIG. 4, the shutter mechanism 53, the X-axis drive unit 41, and the Y-axis drive unit 42 are controlled to emit the laser beam intermittently from the laser emission unit 23, By moving the laser emitting unit 23 in the X direction and / or the Y direction at the time of non-emission (at the time of emission of the guide light), the entire irradiation area 72 is sequentially irradiated with a laser beam by the laser irradiation unit 23, thereby existing in the entire irradiation area 72. Performs hair removal automatically.

At this time, as described above, in the laser hair removal apparatus according to the present invention, a laser beam is irradiated to a certain position in the irradiation area 72, and then a laser beam is irradiated to the next position separated from this position. By repeating the operation, the entire irradiation area 72 is irradiated with the laser beam.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram for conceptually explaining such a laser beam irradiation operation. In this figure, a rectangular area indicates the irradiation area 72 described above, and a circular area in the irradiation area 72 indicates an irradiation area of a laser beam having a beam diameter R. Indicate the order of laser beam irradiation.

First, the laser emitting section 23 is arranged at a position where the laser beam emitted therefrom is applied to a position in the irradiation area 72. Then, the shutter mechanism 53 is driven under the control of the control unit 10, and the laser light source 51 is driven.
The laser beam is emitted from the laser emitting unit 23 with the and the laser emitting unit 23 connected.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged view schematically showing a state where the hair 100 on the skin surface is irradiated with the laser beam.

As described above, the hair 100 at the portion where hair removal is to be performed is cut in advance so that the length L is equal to or less than the beam diameter R of the laser beam.
Therefore, even if the body hair is in close contact with the skin, the body hair is removed from the skin surface together with the hair root portion 101 by the laser beam, and is blown off by the air ejected from the air ejection portion 67 in the pair of tubular bodies 62. .

Referring again to FIG. 6, when the irradiation of the laser beam to the above-mentioned position on the skin surface is completed,
In a state where the guide light is emitted from the laser emitting unit 23 with the red light generating unit 52 and the laser emitting unit 23 being connected, the X-axis driving unit 41 is driven under the control of the control unit 10 to cause the laser emitting unit 23 to operate. The laser beam emitted therefrom is arranged at a position where the laser beam is applied to a position separated from the above-mentioned position. Then, the shutter mechanism 53 is driven by the control of the control unit 10 to change the state of the laser light source 51 and the laser emission unit 23 to a connected state.
A laser beam is emitted.

In this state, the position on the skin surface where the laser beam is first irradiated comes into contact with the guide plate 63 cooled by the Peltier element 66. For this reason, the skin surface immediately after the laser beam irradiation is cooled, and it is possible to effectively eliminate the feeling of heat on the skin.

This operation is performed as shown in FIG.
By repeatedly executing the position,..., The entire area of the irradiation area 72 is irradiated with a laser beam, and the hair in the entire irradiation area 72 is automatically depilated.

At this time, the laser hair removal apparatus according to the present invention repeats the operation of irradiating the laser beam to a position in the irradiation area 72 and then irradiating the laser beam to the next position separated from this position. Since the laser beam is irradiated to the entire irradiation area 72, the heat energy of the laser beam effectively prevents the skin from feeling excessively hot or causing the skin to burn. It is possible to do.

In the above-described embodiment, FIG.
As shown in (1), the irradiation positions by the laser beam are regularly arranged in a staggered manner, but the irradiation positions by the laser beam need not be arranged regularly. However, the irradiation area 72
After irradiating the laser beam to a certain position in the above, it is preferable to irradiate the laser beam to a position distant from this position, and to cool the irradiated skin surface by the guide plate 63 immediately.

In the above embodiment, the guide plate 63 cooled by the Peltier element 66 is brought into contact with the skin surface to cool the skin surface after laser beam irradiation. It may be configured to cool the skin surface after irradiation.

[0051]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the laser irradiation position with respect to the skin surface can be adjusted by intermittently emitting the laser beam and moving the laser emission unit when the laser beam is not emitted. Since the irradiation position changing mechanism to be changed and the control unit that controls the irradiation position changing mechanism to irradiate the laser beam to the entire irradiation area set in advance on the skin surface are provided, the laser hair removal operation is automatically performed. It is possible to execute.

At this time, after irradiating the laser beam to a certain position in the irradiation area, the operation of irradiating the laser beam to the next position separated from this position is repeated to irradiate the entire area of the irradiation area with the laser beam. From
With the thermal energy of the laser beam, it is possible to effectively prevent the skin from feeling excessively hot or causing the skin to burn.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the cooling mechanism for cooling the skin surface after the laser beam irradiation is provided, it is possible to effectively eliminate the feeling of heat on the skin immediately after the laser beam irradiation. It becomes possible.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the irradiation area is a rectangular area whose long side is set to the longitudinal direction of the human body, the laser emitting section is moved in a direction to approach or separate from the body. It is possible to eliminate the need to perform the hair removal operation efficiently.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, a cutting step for cutting the hair on the skin surface so as to have a length equal to or less than the beam diameter R, and a step of laser irradiation at a certain position in a predetermined irradiation dose area on the skin surface. After irradiating the beam, by repeating the operation of irradiating the laser beam to the next position separated from this position, a laser beam irradiating step of irradiating the laser beam to the entire irradiation area, the laser hair removal work It can be executed automatically, and the thermal energy of the laser beam can effectively prevent the skin from feeling excessively hot or causing the skin to burn.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, after the laser beam irradiation step, there is further provided a cooling step of cooling the laser beam irradiation position on the skin surface.
It is possible to effectively eliminate the feeling of heat on the skin immediately after laser beam irradiation.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a laser hair removal device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a laser emitting section 23 in the laser hair removal apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a partial cross-sectional schematic view showing a connection relationship between a laser emitting unit 23 and a laser light source 51 and the like.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a main electrical configuration of the laser hair removal apparatus according to the present invention.

5 is a plan view of an auxiliary plate 71. FIG.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram for conceptually explaining a laser beam irradiation operation.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged view schematically showing a state in which a laser beam is applied to body hair 100 on the skin surface.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 control unit 21 control box 22 CCD camera 23 laser emission unit 24 moving mechanism 35 articulated arm 41 X-axis drive unit 42 Y-axis drive unit 43 bet 44 body 51 laser light source 52 red light generation unit 53 shutter mechanism 54 optical fiber 55 lens barrel 56 Meniscus lens 57 Meniscus lens 58 Sapphire glass 61 Slide frame 62 Tubular body 63 Guide plate 64 Hole 65 Positioning mechanism 66 Peltier element 67 Air ejection section 68 Pipeline 71 Auxiliary plate 100 Body hair 101 Hair root

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A laser hair removal device for performing hair removal by irradiating a hair beam on a body surface of a skin surface with a laser beam, comprising: a laser emission unit that emits a laser beam intermittently; and the laser emission unit when a laser beam is not emitted. Moving the laser beam to change the laser irradiation position on the skin surface; andcontrolling the irradiation position changing mechanism to irradiate the entire surface of the skin surface with the laser beam in a predetermined irradiation amount range. After irradiating the laser beam to a certain position in the irradiation area, by repeating the operation of irradiating the laser beam to the next position separated from this position, the entire area of the irradiation area is irradiated with the laser beam A laser hair removal device, characterized in that: 2. The laser hair removal apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a cooling mechanism for cooling the skin surface after the irradiation of the laser beam. 3. The laser hair removal method according to claim 1, wherein the irradiation area is a rectangular area having a long side in a longitudinal direction of a human body. 4. A laser hair removal method for performing hair removal by irradiating a hair beam having a beam diameter R to a body hair portion on the skin surface, wherein the body hair on the skin surface has a length equal to or less than the beam diameter R. The cutting step of cutting and irradiating a laser beam to a certain position in a predetermined irradiation area of the skin surface, and then repeating the operation of irradiating the laser beam to the next position separated from this position, the irradiation area A laser beam irradiating step of irradiating the entire area with a laser beam. 5. The laser hair removal method according to claim 4, further comprising a cooling step of cooling a laser beam irradiation position on the skin surface after the laser beam irradiation step.