MEASUREMENT OF HUMAN SKIN COMPRESSION DYNAMICALLY USING AN AUTOMATED PHOTOGRAMMETRIC TECHNIQUE

This paper describes the procedure used to measure human tissue compression and distortion at a dynamic rate. This is part of an ongoing research program on skin tissue and is set up to monitor capillary occlusion especially over areas of boney prominences. The monitoring of the skin surfaces allows us to measure the swelling as to the shape of the object applying the pressure. Eventually the tissue recovers, and normal capillary flow is restored, the pattern of least pressure recovers first and the most pressure recovering last. This whole response is affected by multiple factors, including illness, peripheral vascular disease, and heart disease to name a few. This research is also applied to monitor the lapse rate of human skin indention. To meet the demand for near real time measurement of this magnitude requires special hardware configurations and software integration and solutions in hardware as to provide near real time throughput. The system utilizes multiple synchronized digital cameras with a precision pattern projector. The projection system projects a fine mesh of dots on the skin surface and auto point measurement and stereo matching are also utilized to measure the surface at near real time rates