Study On Low-cost Measurement Of Human Body Surface Temperature Map And Its Application

Temperature measurement has been a fundamental and important approach inthe diagnosis of diseases. Traditional methods of temperature measurement includethermometer and infrared imaging device. They are either too expensive or can onlyget temperatures at a single point, which restrict their wide applications in clinicalmedicine. Nowadays, health care within family or community has been paid more andmore attention, which makes low-cost temperature measurement equipment more andmore increasingly important. In this thesis we developed two low-cost temperaturemeasuring methods, including a non-contacting method based on mechanicalscanning enabled infrared imaging and contacting method based on thermochronicliquid crystal thermography.Traditional infrared imaging devices are very expensive, while single-pointinfrared thermometer cannot get the2-D distribution of the temperature though it ismuch cheaper. By means of mechanical method, the scanning infrared thermometercan get the distribution of the temperature with only an infrared thermometer.Moreover, it can get the real time temperature distribution of a small area. In thiswork, a prototype system of such a equipment, including the software/hardware andthe mechanical devices were completed and demonstrated.Further, a new kind of medical imaging strategy based on cellular phone thatsingle acquisition, data processing, and image display are physically separated butlogically connected by wireless data communication is developed to obtain thequantitative temperature mappings of human skin. We use the camera integrated oncellular phone to capture the visual images reflected by the thermochronic liquidcrystal pre-painted on human skin, then reconstruct the contact thermography ofhuman skin through digital imaging processing method according to thetemperature-hue curve. Additional thermal parameters related to body health statusare calculated based on the bioheat transfer model of human body. The presentmethod is expected to be developed as a pervasive and low cost way to map the skin temperature imaging of human.