Tongue Image Dataset with Inquiry Data

Here, we present a publicly available dataset containing 1194 tongue images captured under controlled conditions; the corresponding annotations (i.e., tongue color, tongue shape, cracked tongue, tooth-marked tongue, color of tongue coating, and thickness of tongue coating) assigned by three specialist TCM practitioners; and inquiry data collected from a clinical questionnaire. To ensure the reliability of these annotations of tongue characteristics, an annotation consistency evaluation was conducted. Additionally, we designed and utilized deep learning models with corresponding single-label and multi-head classifiers to perform baseline validation on this dataset, highlighting the challenges and potential for future research. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first TCM dataset containing tongue images as well as clinical inquiry data. The use of this dataset can facilitate multidimensional diagnosis of physique, thereby promoting standardization of TCM diagnostic methods.