Detecting Melanoma with Gigapixel Camera

Melanoma is the most common skin cancer in the United States. It can be cured if detected in early stages. It is very invasive that is why the prognosis is poor if detected in later stages.

Thanks to the invention of high resolution camera which is capable of taking high resolution images of the skin. Doctors can now spot skin cancer in its early stages. This camera is developed by a team of researchers at Duke University of North Carolina. This camera allows doctors to image the entire body down to a freckle. Daniel Marks, one of the co-author, said that dermatologists examine the small area with high resolution or large area with low resolution, but this gigapixel camera is able to provide high resolution image of the large area. It is designed to find out the cancer at very early stage. Although there are many techniques available to capture the whole body image, but they are limited because of the low resolution camera.

A camera having a wide angle lens can capture images of the whole body, but dermatologists are not able to zoom in and out because of the low resolution so there are chances that many small lesions can be missed. Dermatologists usually use digital dermatoscopy to evaluate suspicious skin area. This gigapixel camera developed by the Duke University team contains 34microcameras. The focus and exposure time of each camera can be adjusted independently. According to Mark, this gigapixel camera is significantly better than dermatoscope. This camera will be available after clinical trials.

Danial Marks said “The camera is designed to find lesions potentially indicating skin cancers on patients at an earlier stage than current skin examination techniques.