Multispectral and hyperspectral imaging: applications for medical and surgical diagnostics

One of the keys to a surgeon's successful work is his or her ability to see and feel well enough to adequately identify problems, particularly those that were not anticipated. Thus, an extension of the surgeon's vision would be a significant breakthrough. Multispectral and hyperspectral imaging techniques, along with associated algorithms and image processing methodologies have been developed by the military for detecting, classifying and identifying targets amid background clutter. Applying this technology to medicine will allow novel exploration of anatomy, physiology and pathology.