Kong Group Moves Multispectral Scanner To Clinical Trials
2009-07-31 -
A new handheld medical device, a skin surface scanner, is moving from the Georgia Tech campus into clinical trials this Fall. The device is useful in diagnosing conditions where the symptoms include redness of the skin. For African-Americans and other dark-skinned patients whose skin does not show redness well, the device overcomes the limitations of the human eye. The basic technology involved is the first to deliver real-time, narrow-band multispectral images from a single miniaturized imaging sensor, and also has wide applications in agriculture, and food production, and other areas of healthcare. Announced earlier this year in prototype form, the diminutive new device uses a technology called multispectral imaging that allows it to selectively filter out all but a few specific light wavelengths and display enhanced images in real-time. The resulting images can reveal things invisible to the naked eye and to ordinary cameras, such as subtle variations in color. While multispectrum imaging has been around for years, never before has it been available in real-time form using an inexpensive handheld device.
The inventor of the system, Georgia Tech’s Dr. Linghua Kong, explains that part of the device’s significance is its immediate application in clinical medicine. In its present form, the device offers a cost-effective way to automate the diagnosis of erythema (skin reddening) that may be the harbinger of much more serious pressure ulcers in the elderly, the disabled, or others who have mobility or sensory difficulties. Kong also foresees many commercial applications for the device, which can be customized to detect a range of related phenomena. Bruises or insect damage to fruits and vegetables, for example, can be detected in processing plants or even in the field, using the tiny portable imaging camera. What is truly novel about the system is its construction and image-sensor chip. Where previous multispectral cameras took multiple “pictures” and combined them after the fact, or used processor-intensive image processing, the new system uses a fabricated optical filter mosaic laminated directly to the surface of an off-the-shelf digital camera image sensor. The result is a very low cost of production plus the real-time generation of multispectral images.
Kong’s team, which includes graduate students Fengtao Wang and Chao Wang from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been developing the new camera for over two years. In early 2008, they announced the successfully construction of a prototype. Today’s system is ready for production and will be evaluated in a clinical setting over the next few months. The research was conducted under the direction of Dr. Stephen Sprigle at CATEA, Georgia Tech’s Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access (a unit of the Georgia Tech College of Architecture).
For more Information contact:
David Morton
CATEA, College of Architecture
david.morton@coa.gatech.edu
404-385-0871
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