Research published in the Journal of Biomedical Optics (JBO) clearly demonstrates that standard smartphone technology can be adapted to detect skin lesions in images. This will provide an affordable, affordable medical diagnostic tool for treating skin cancer.
Skin lesions are diagnosed by a simple system of color, size, asymmetry, and surface appearance. The method of lighting the foci indicates the differences between normal and malignant lesions. For their study, the authors developed two dermoscopes using a smartphone-based camera and a USB-based camera. Both dermoscopes, combining polarized LED-based white light imaging (PWLI), polarized multispectral imaging (PMSI), and image processing algorithms, have been successfully compared and distinguished between dermal chromophores indicating melanoma and erythema. Thus, the new dermoscope will help distinguish a malignant tumor from a harmless reddening of the skin.
According to Brian Pogh, a researcher at SPIE (a professional non-profit international association of scientists, engineers, and students in the field of optics and photonics), using a smartphone camera improves the efficiency of diagnosing skin lesions.
The functionality and effectiveness of detecting skin cancer are very important, the scientist is sure. Additional camera enhancements for mobile phones tested in the study will provide simple and accurate diagnoses. Although there are always ways to take advantage of medical imaging systems, they can often be too expensive. In this case, they will not be widely available and commercially successful.
In addition, medical devices can be made so complex that they are not easy to adapt. Here, the already familiar platform is inexpensive and intuitive to use. The simplicity of the new development approach successfully combines the user’s need for simple diagnostic tools with high accuracy. This is the kind of innovation that will potentially make it easier to introduce it into clinical practice.
