Hyperspectral Image Analysis for Skin Tumor Detection

Abstract

This chapter presents hyperspectral imaging of fluorescence for nonin-vasive detection of tumorous tissue on mouse skin. Hyperspectral imaging sensors collect two-dimensional (2D) image data of an object in a number of narrow, adjacent spectral bands. This high-resolution measurement of spectral information reveals a continuous emission spectrum for each image pixel useful for skin tumor detection. The hyperspectral image data used in this study are fluorescence intensities of a mouse sample consisting of 21 spectral bands in the visible spectrum of wavelengths ranging from 440 to 640 nm. Fluorescence signals are measured using a laser excitation source with the center wavelength of 337 nm. An acousto-optic tunable filter is used to capture individual spectral band images at a 10-nm resolution. All spectral band images are spatially registered with the reference band image at 490 nm to obtain exact pixel correspondences by compensating the offsets caused during the image capture procedure. The support vector machines with polynomial kernel functions provide decision boundaries with a maximum separation margin to classify malignant tumor and normal tissue from the observed fluorescence spectral signatures for skin tumor detection.