Medical optical imaging: Signal processing leads to new methods of detecting life-threatening situations [Special Reports]

Optical imaging, a medical technique that is used to obtain detailed images of organs, tissues, cells, and molecules in the presence of visible light, is an emerging technology with the potential to enhance patient treatment, diagnosis, and disease prevention. Offering numerous advantages over radiological imaging techniques, optical imaging uses nonionizing radiation to reduce a patient's radiation exposure, thereby allowing for more frequent studies over time. Signal processing is now helping to make optical imaging even more useful and versatile, allowing more detailed images to be captured and expanding the technology’s use into new patient treatment and medical research areas. The biggest signal processing-related challenges facing researchers are enabling effective noise filtering, fast image display, and saving image data to a hard disk, if necessary.