Worried about what the summer sun is doing to your skin? This skin cancer-detecting smart phone app may be able to help.

Confession: I’m bad about protecting my epidermis from the sun. Even though I know all of the scary statistics and correlations between sun exposure and skin cancer, I often find myself outdoors without a hat or sunscreen. Which is all fine and good until something weird pops up.

If you’ve ever found a mole or strange patch of skin, it probably only took a single Google search for your mind to think skin cancer. Now, a new smart phone app called SkinVision makes it possible to do some analysis on your own before shelling out for an expensive visit to the dermatologist.

The smart phone app, which was recently nominated for an Index Award in the body category, allows users to analyze their skin lesions by taking a picture on their smartphone. “SkinVision technology uses a proprietary mathematical algorithm to calculate the fractal dimension of skin lesions and surrounding skin tissue and builds a structural map that reveals the different growth patterns of the tissues involved,” explains the app’s website. “By processing this map, SkinVision is able to see if the mole has an abnormal development and to alert the user if a medical visit is required.”

Any dermatologist will tell you that  moles or lesions must be actively monitored. While most moles are harmless, the sudden appearance of a mole, or change in a mole’s color or shape can indicate risk for skin cancer. Prevention through behavior change and early detection are key to reducing this risk, both things that are enabled by SkinVision.

The app is available for both Android and iOS, and comes in a free and paid version. The free version provides educational material on skin cancer or skin conditions, as well as UV information based on a user’s location, so it’s easier to know when your skin needs to be protected. Only with the paid version of SkinVision can users have their moles analyzed via a smartphone photo.

Still, $2.99 seems a small price to pay for the chance to catch skin cancer before it starts.

Images: SkinVision

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Ah, there’s nothing like getting out into nature with nothing else but…your iPhone…

Welcome to the Modern World where to be smart phone-less is to be, well…unmodern. We use our devices for everything: maps, weather and traffic checks, finding great food, entertainment, and even, a little bit of the way the world was before we dug it all up and covered it with concrete.

Yes, the iPhone is good for more than just connecting you with a bunch of Angry Birds…how about letting it connect you with just plain old actual birds?

Meet Indeterminate Hikes+ a smart phone app created by professors at the University of Rochester in New York. The goal is to help us change our views of urban nature while helping users to better understand the way cities have evolved.

Cary Peppermint and Leila Nadir co-founded EcoArtTech, which focuses on bridging technology and environmentalism. The duo work with other artists and organizations, reports Utne, and Indeterminate Hikes+ is the latest offering from the collaboration.

IH+ works with Google Maps creating hiking paths in urban areas. Once downloaded to your smart phone, you enter in your target start and end locations. The app then generates “random” path routes that include a variety of activities focused on honing the user into nature along the way. “The prompts increase awareness of the environment where you live and also cause social interactions—you’re using the technology to reconnect with space instead of people,” according to Peppermint.

“Wilderness is all around you and the app encourages users to give the same attention to inner city parks and rain gutters that we do to landscapes like canyons and gorges,” said Nadir. The hikes are designed for groups of two or more (although you can certainly do one alone) and there are prompts from the app as well, encouraging users to take pictures at key spots (of environmental or historical significance). You may be asked to write a field note and perform other “socially interactive” tasks to enrich the walk and better observe nature.

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

Image: D’La Crux

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