ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,657,720, issued on June 16, was assigned to George Mason University (Fairfax, Va.).

"Systems and processes for automated detection and characterization of skin features using machine learning" was invented by David Alan Lattanzi (Fairfax, Va.), Katherine Ramelle Scafide (Potomac, Md.) and Janusz Wojtusiak (Manassas, Va.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to systems and processes for automated skin feature detection and analysis, and more particularly to identifying and assessing the characteristics and age of skin contusions, bruises, and other similar skin features using a deep learning mod...