Improving spatial resolution in skin-contact thermography: comparison between a spline based and linear interpolation

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Imaging Technology

Background:

• Skin-contact thermography is crucial for medical applications like breast cancer monitoring.
• Existing devices require improved spatial resolution for enhanced feature recognition.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and test a wearable device for skin-contact thermography.
• To improve the spatial resolution of thermographic imaging using a cubic-spline interpolation procedure.

Main Methods:

• A 2-D array of 4x4 integrated silicon sensors was used in a wearable device.
• A cubic-spline interpolation procedure was developed to enhance spatial resolution.
• Performance was evaluated in a medical application and compared to infrared cameras and linear interpolation.

Main Results:

• The device achieved a thermal resolution of 0.03°C and initial spatial resolution of 1.6x10⁻⁵ m².
• Spline interpolation improved spatial resolution to 1.5x10⁻⁸ m² with 128x pixel interpolation.
• Spline interpolation provided superior thermal reconstruction accuracy compared to linear interpolation, with a maximal error of 81x10⁻³ °C.

Conclusions:

• The developed wearable thermography device with spline interpolation offers significantly improved spatial resolution.
• This advancement is critical for detailed medical imaging applications, including early disease detection.
• The spline-based method demonstrates higher accuracy than traditional linear interpolation techniques.