A Hand-Held Non-Contact Burn Triage System Utilizing Visible and Thermographic Imaging in 3D.

Thermal injuries are common in all modern military conflicts and care given shortly after a severe burn is critical to its treatment and recovery. Triage for burn injuries is primarily separated into superficial burns which will heal naturally, and deep burns which require surgery. In far-forward environments non-expert combat medics must make burn triage decisions without the aid of lab equipment. A new device will be developed to fit this need in developing custom software paired with commercially-available components to perform thermographic imaging and 3D image reconstruction. Thermographic imaging on 2D images can provide triage-level assessments, however errors can be introduced when using only a single image. By capturing a video in both visible and infrared, a 3D rendering of the injury can be made and the textured using the thermographic information. In Phase I, 3D image reconstruction software will be written to run on a handheld smartphone device, a clinical model will be developed to interpret thermographic data and provide triage recommendations, a front-end user-interface will be developed emphasizing simplicity and speed for combat medics, and the prototype system will be assembled and tested for basic functionality.