NIST effort could improve high-tech medical scanners

A team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have taken steps to ensure a powerful color-based imaging technique performs as well when discerning oxygen-depleted tissues and cancer cells in the body as it does with oil spills in the ocean. The technique, called hyperspectral imaging (HSI), has frequently been used in satellites because of its ability to identify objects by color. HSI is able to distinguish the full color spectrum in each pixel, which allows it to perceive the unique color "signatures" of individual objects. Well-calibrated HSI sensors have been able to discern problems from diseases in coral reefs to pollution in the atmosphere as determined by the distinct spectral signature at a location. This project is part of a larger effort to evaluate and validate optical medical imaging devices.