(no subject)
So, some people have asked exactly what these images are, how we get them, and why it's more interesting than just photographing a mouse ear.
What are we trying to do?
We are trying to do two things, and both relate to diagnosing skin cancers:
- Make images of blood vessels in skin. This is important because you can't do it normally. If you want to see the blood vessels in a suspicious (pre-cancerous) mole on an arm, you have problems. Moles absorb light, skin scatters the hell out of it, and arms are too thick to look through.
- Make images that detect how much oxygen is in the blood. Again, with the aim of cancer diagnosis, because tumors are typically pretty hypoxic.
The final goal is a box a dermatologist can use to make quick and accurate diagnostic images.
What are the images? Well, they are not photographs. There is no camera, no lens, and no light other than a laser. If there's interest, I can try to explain the science simply.