Contact-less, Multi-Spectral Imaging of Dermal Perfusion

Photoplethysmography (PPG) has come to be accepted as a common, non-invasive method for measuring the level of oxygen saturation in arterial blood. This paper describes a variation of the accepted PPG technique, to provide a contact-less and non-invasive method of characterizing dermal perfusion. It employs a 3-CCD, multi-spectral camera, to image the selected area. The acquired images are analysed by making use of the fact that the absorption co-efficient of oxygenated blood is more in the infra-red (IR) region of the spectrum, when compared to the red region. This fact is utilised to characterize the extent of dermal perfusion in the selected area of the skin.