Active multispectral imaging system for photodiagnosis and personalized phototherapies.

The proposed system has been designed to identify dermatopathologies or to apply personalized phototherapy treatments. The system emits electromagnetic waves in different spectral bands in the range of visible and near infrared to irradiate the target (skin or any other object) to be spectrally characterized. Then, an imaging sensor measures the target response to the stimulus at each spectral band and, after processing, the system displays in real time two images. In one of them the value of each pixel corresponds to the more reflected wavenumber whereas in the other image the pixel value represents the energy absorbed at each band. The diagnosis capability of this system lies in its multispectral design, and the phototherapy treatments are adapted to the patient and his lesion by measuring his absorption capability. This "in situ" absorption measurement allows us to determine the more appropriate duration of the treatment according to the wavelength and recommended dose. The main advantages of this system are its low cost, it does not have moving parts or complex mechanisms, it works in real time, and it is easy to handle. For these reasons its widespread use in dermatologist consultation would facilitate the work of the dermatologist and would improve the efficiency of diagnosis and treatment. In fact the prototype has already been successfully applied to pathologies such as carcinomas, melanomas, keratosis, and nevi.

Note: design of a dose-controlled phototherapy system based on hyperspectral studies.

Phototherapy consists in applying radiation on a part of the human body in order to treat an illness. A radiation dose is established for each treatment. In order to apply the correct dose a treatment time is set. However, in this work we have carried out some hyperspectral imaging studies that conclude that the radiation sources and the absorption properties of each patient can change. Therefore, the same treatment time does not ensure that the patient receive the appropriate dose. Thus, an optimized therapy system must measure the radiation emitted by the source and absorbed by the patient on real time to calculate the optimal dose at which the treatment is effective. In this work, we have developed and designed a custom system to measure the effectiveness of a radiative therapy treatment to adapt the appropriate dose for a specific patient in real time.

Nonintrusive system for road traffic detection and characterization.

Knowing the number, type, and velocity of the vehicles that drive along a road is extremely important to manage efficiently the traffic flow and also to estimate the environmental impact that the road may have in the surroundings. In this work the development and preliminary tests for a nonintrusive instrument and method for traffic characterization have been carried out. The system is part of a methodology to estimate the contaminants emitted to air due to urban and suburban road traffic. Based on a set of ultrasonic sensors, the system has shown reliability and accuracy in the determination of the number, type, and velocity of vehicles in a suburban road with several lanes and two ways. The success of this system lies on the method and data processing which overcomes the intrinsic noise problems of ultrasonic sensors. The developed system is easy to install and does not interfere with the road traffic. It is also of low cost, has no moving parts, and requires small power supply. The proposed system is an ideal tool to perform traffic studies where portability and low costs are required, for example, in environmental impact assessments studies.