A novel hyperspectral medical sensor for tongue diagnosis

Purpose - Tongue diagnosis is a standard expert technique of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Computerized tongue diagnosis promises to automate the process of tongue diagnosis yet the tongue images segmentation upon which it depends is made difficult by the fact that the tongue is non-rigid and varies greatly in size, shape, color, and texture. This paper presents a novel medical sensor system for TCM tongue diagnosis, which makes use of hyperspectral imaging technology. Design/methodology/approach - The tongue image capturing sensor device for Chinese medical is based on the theory of the pushbroom hyperspectral imager. The paper illustrates its advantages by detecting the tongue contour in the hyperspectral images. Findings - The experiments from 1,522 clinical tongue images show the validity of the system. Practical implications - In this paper, the authors propose to use hyperspectral technology for tongue diagnosis for the first time in the literature and obtain promising results. Originality/value - The novel sensor for tongue image capture gives a new method for tongue imformation collection. This system gives a new approach for tongue information collection.