Optimization of spectral sensitivities of mosaic five-band camera for estimating chromophore densities from skin images including shading and surface reflections

Abstract

In this paper, the spectral sensitivities of a mosaic five-band camera were optimized using a numerical skin phantom to perform the separation of chromophore densities, shading and surface reflection. To simulate the numerical skin phantom, the spectral reflectance of skin was first calculated by Monte Carlo simulation of photon migration for different concentrations of melanin, blood and oxygen saturation levels. The melanin and hemoglobin concentration distributions used in the numerical skin phantom were obtained from actual skin images by independent component analysis. The calculated components were assigned as concentration distributions. The spectral sensitivities of the camera were then optimized using a nonlinear technique to estimate the spectral reflectance for skin separation. In this optimization, the spectral sensitivities were assumed to be normally distributed, and the sensor arrangement was identical to that of a conventional mosaic five-band camera. Our findings demonstrated that spectral estimation could be significantly improved by optimizing the spectral sensitivities.