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Tactile Imaging Sensor Can Assist Doctors with Early Identification of Tumors
Newswise — A key part of a medical patient’s physical examination is
performed through touch, but the doctor can only glean so much
information from what he feels. That’s why Temple University researchers
have created a prototype device that will not only emulate human
tactile sensation, but quantify it as well.
The tactile imaging
sensor has been developed by Chang-Hee Won, an associate professor of
electrical and computer engineering at Temple.
“The human hands
have this amazing ability to touch something and tell if it’s soft or
hard, if it’s wet, or even it’s temperature,” said Won, who is also
director of the Control, Sensor, Network and Perception Laboratory in
Temple’s College of Engineering. “We’re trying to emulate this tactile
sensation with a device that will actually quantify this by giving us
the mechanical properties of what we are feeling.”
Won said the
tactile imaging sensor could aid doctors when they feel lesions, lumps
or tumors while doing physical exams on patients by detecting the size
and shape of the lesion or tumor, as well as its elasticity and
mobility.
“Once a doctor feels a lesion, lump or tumor, they can
use this device to actually characterize the mechanical properties of
the irregularity that they have felt,” he said.
Won said that
studies have shown that cancerous lesions and tumors tend to be larger,
more irregular in shape or have harder elasticity. “Using the
information gleaned by our device, we can determine the probability of
this lesion or tumor being either malignant or benign.”
The
portable tactile imaging sensor can be attached to any desktop or laptop
computer that has a Firewire cable port. Equipped with four LED lights
and a camera, the 4.5-inch device has a flexible transparent elastomer
cube on the end, into which light is injected.
When the doctor
feels an irregularity while giving a patient a physical exam, he or she
can place the sensor against the skin where the irregularity was felt.
The sensor uses the total internal reflection principle, which keeps the
injected light within the elastomer cube unless an intrusion from a
lesion or tumor changes the contour of the elastomer’s surface, in which
case the light will reflect out of the cube.
The sensor’s camera
will then capture the lesion or tumor images caused by the reflected
light and they are processed with a novel algorithm developed by the
CSNAP Lab to calculate the lesion’s mechanical properties.
Won
stressed that the device is not designed to replace such tests as
mammograms for breast tumors, but to assist the primary doctor in
initially obtaining key information.
“Most primary physicians’
offices are not equipped to perform tests such as mammograms,” he said.
“This device would provide the doctor key information by allowing them
to quantify and display the lesion or tumor. With this information, they
can decide whether to monitor it or send the patient to a specialist or
hospital for a more definitive diagnosis.”
Won said that the
device is non-invasive and can detect lumps or tumors up to 3
centimeters under the skin. “If you can feel it with your finger, you
can see it with this device.”
In addition to the advantages of
being portable and non-invasive, the devise is also inexpensive. Wan
said the prototype costs approximately $500.