Monday, October 6, 2014

Gigapixel camera could screen you for cancer

A new gigapixel camera based on defense research technology can take high resolution pictures of the human body and will help diagnose skin cancer in the future.





Melanoma is a form of skin cancer. It is the fifth most common form of cancer, but more importantly, it is responsible for more then 75% of skin cancer deaths. If detected early, it’s usually curable. The problem is, you have a lot of skin and many people never notice it until its too late. Thankfully, a new gigapixel camera might offer us a big hand in diagnosing the disease. The camera is capable of taking high resolution pictures of the entire human body, potentially helping doctors find melanoma much easier than in the past.

The camera, called the “gigapixel whole-body photographic camera” is equivalent to having three dozen cameras in one. It was developed by researchers at North Carolina’s Duke University. The research paper is being presented later this month at the Optical Society’s (OSA) Annual Meeting in Tucson.

“The camera is designed to find lesions potentially indicating skin cancers on patients at an earlier stage than current skin examination techniques,” said co-author Daniel Marks. “Normally a dermatologist examines either a small region of the skin at high resolution or a large region at low resolution, but a gigapixel image doesn’t require a compromise between the two.”





Previously, dermatologists were forced to use lower resolution photos, and this in turn means they need to rely on other techniques to make a diagnosis, one such technique being digital dermatoscopy. This involves looking at discolorations and microstructures in the skin which isn’t visible to the naked eye. Unfortunately, using two types of images drives up the cost of diagnosis and limits the possibility for telemedicine.



A test picture taken with the camera demonstrates the resolution

Duke’s camera is reminiscent of a telescope and its eyepieces. The camera uses a simple, yet precise objective lens that takes pictures with known irregularities. The 34 microcameras that make up the gigapixel camera are arranged in a dome to counteract the aberrations and create a continuous image.





The camera design, is based on research which is part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program “Advanced Wide Field-of-View Architectures for Image Reconstruction and Exploitation.”



Source: Phys.org







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