Novel miniaturized multispectral imaging system for real-time bruise detection

Multispectral imaging (MSI) technology has the potential to provide effective tools to fight against the prevalent social problem of child and elder abuses via objective and accurate assessment and determination of size, shape and age of bruises. This paper provides a feasibility study of instrumenting MSI technology for convenient bruise study. Conventional MSI technique can be employed to determine the signature optical properties of bruises, i.e., to obtain a finite set of center wavelengths at which the bruise chromospheres have peak absorption. To reduce the size, cost and improve the efficiency of MSI imaging system, a micro narrow-band filter mosaic is designed, developed and integrated with a conventional monochrome CCD imaging sensor to produce a prototyped handheld multispectral imager that is capable of producing four multispectral images with a single shot and is suitable for bruise detection in clinical and forensic settings.