Medição do volume de feridas por visão computacional

Abstract

Treatment and follow-up of Diabetic Foot ulcers is a major public health issue. Current techniques used for following up the healing process of open ulcers are mostly based on approximate area measurements of the wound and involve direct contact, which poses risks of contamination for the patient. In this work we propose the use of computer vision techniques to measure not just the area, but the volume of open ulcers, providing additional objective information about the healing process to physicians while avoiding direct contact with the wound during the measurement procedure. The proposed technique involves acquiring a sequence of images of the wound with structured illumination using a low-power laser beam line, followed by depth reconstruction from the geometry of the acquisition device. The obtained depth reconstruction of the ulcer is then used for the estimation of its volume. Preliminary controlled ex-vivo experiments using a rubber model of a Diabetic Foot show promising results.