Non-contact imaging of venous compliance in humans using an RGB camera

• Published in: Optical review (Tokyo, Japan) Vol. 22; no. 2; pp. 335 - 341
• Main Authors: Nakano, Kazuya, Satoh, Ryota, Hoshi, Akira, Matsuda, Ryohei, Suzuki, Hiroyuki, Nishidate, Izumi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tokyo Springer Japan 01.04.2015
• Subjects: Atomic; Biomedical Imaging and Sensing Conference (BISC'14); Japan; Lasers; Microwaves; Molecular; Optical and Plasma Physics; Optical Devices; Optics; Photonics; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Quantum Optics; RF and Optical Engineering; Special Section: Regular Paper; Yokohama; RGB image; Upper-arm occlusion; Skin hemodynamics; Non-contact measurement; Monte Carlo simulation; Venous compliance
• DOI: 10.1007/s10043-015-0041-5
• ISSN: 1340-6000

We propose a technique for non-contact imaging of venous compliance that uses the red, green, and blue (RGB) camera. Any change in blood concentration is estimated from an RGB image of the skin, and a regression formula is calculated from that change. Venous compliance is obtained from a differential form of the regression formula. In vivo experiments with human subjects confirmed that the proposed method does differentiate the venous compliances among individuals. In addition, the image of venous compliance is obtained by performing the above procedures for each pixel. Thus, we can measure venous compliance without physical contact with sensors and, from the resulting images, observe the spatial distribution of venous compliance, which correlates with the distribution of veins.