Non-contact stiffness imager for medical application

This paper discusses a non-contact stiffness imager that can provide us with the pattern of a stiffness (or pseudo-stiffness) distribution of environment. While there are four combinations between the force applying method and the way for measuring the displacement, we pick up the combination in which the force is given to the environment at a local point and the displacement of environment is measured in the neighboring area where the force is given. We first explain the basic idea by utilizing the experimental system composed of an air supply system and a scanning type line laser sensor. We also apply the idea to an endoscope camera capable of obtaining the pseudo-stiffness pattern as well as the visual pattern.