Automatic Intelligent Asymmetry Detection Using Digital Infrared Imaging with K-Means Clustering

Abstract

Digital infrared thermal imaging is a non-invasive adjunctive diagnostic technique that allows an examiner to visualize and quantify changes in skin surface temperature. The asymmetry of temperature differences between the diseased and the contralateral healthy body parts can be automatically analyzed and has been studied in many areas of medical science. In this paper, we propose a method for intelligent automatic asymmetry detection based on a K-means analysis and a YCbCr color model. The implemented software successfully visualizes an asymmetric distribution of colors with respect to the patients’ health status.