The Development of a Low-Cost, Quantitative Skin Imaging Camera

Abstract Management of chronic wounds are a burden in today s aging populationExpert wound care is needed to monitor and track skin healthAdvances in digital photography have made it an efficient and economic option for surveillance and treatmentHowevereven with the best of circumstancesphotographs typically provide qualitative color information that the clinician will interpret to assess physiological tissue healthRecent advancements in optical imaging methods and devices offer the ability to perform quantitative characterization of tissue structure and biochemical statusModulated ImagingMIalso known as Spatial Frequency Domain ImagingSFDIemploys multispectralpatterned illumination to non invasively obtain subsurface images of biological tissueThe broad goal of this research proposal is to build and validate a handheld system that brings MI technology to point of carePoCapplicationsThisPoC MIdevice will dramatically simplify system complexity and sizewhile utilizing primarily off the shelf consumer grade componentsBased on research accomplishments in Phase Iwe have identified hardware and algorithms that will enable us to build a PoC MI device at lower costx BOM reductionlighter weightx lighterand with faster acquisitionmsx fastercompared to previous revisions of the technologyIn this Phase II proposalwe propose to design and fabricate a low costhand held tablet form factorquantitative skin imaging camera with careful assessment of device performance on tissue simulating phantoms and performance validation in well established pre clinical and clinical modelsThe results of this grant will be the first PoC MI system that provides quantitative biochemical information of the skin into a tablet form factorenabling wide applicability in clinical management of chronic wounds