14 DAY TRIAL // These days, the world tends to swoon if a camera with a sensor of over 20 megapixels is released, but there are photo and video capture devices that go an order of magnitude above that. We're about to check one of them out.
Photo, video and digital imaging technologies are a large part of defense research and development efforts, so the US is always funneling funds into their advancement.
What you might not expect is for a camera based on defense research to end up being used in diagnostics medicine instead.
Nevertheless, this is what is happening to a certain gigapixel camera developed by researchers at North Carolina’s Duke University.
The camera can detect skin cancer
Until now, dermatologists had to use low-resolution photos and rely on other technologies when trying to determine what ailment someone was suffering from. Because of that, skin cancer isn't the easiest thing to detect or confirm.
The new gigapixel camera makes it a lot easier to detect melanoma, by finding lesions on patients at a much earlier stage than before.
The camera is a lot like a telescope, and uses a fairly simple objective lens, all things considered. Everything other than the lens is pretty sophisticated though.
It has to be, since no system involving 34 different microcameras can be called simple. The cameras form a dome that counteracts the standard irregularities in the field of view captured by the lens.
The arrangement is a result of DARPA's “Advanced Wide Field-of-View Architectures for Image Reconstruction and Exploitation.” DARPA stands for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, in case you didn't already know.
In more layman’s terms
The “gigapixel whole-body photographic camera” is the equivalent of three dozen different cameras put together. It will be presented later this month at the Optical Society’s (OSA) Annual Meeting in Tucson.
We're pretty sure its inclusion in dermatology is already assured though. After all, it can detect melanoma easier than before, and without auxiliary methods like digital dermoscopy (looking at discolorations and microstructures in the skin which aren’t visible to the naked eye). Since melanoma accounts for 75% of all skin cancer deaths (in spite of being only the fifth most common form of cancer), this is a pretty big deal.
Admittedly, the resolution isn't as good as that on the best dermatoscope, but it allows for a larger imaging area and can be used for telemedicine too, making routine screening possible over the Internet. Very good for people in remote locations, or who can't move around much for whatever reason.
