Development of a thermographic image instrument using the raspberry Pi embedded system for the study of the diabetic foot

Abstract

This paper presents the development of an instrument for the gathering of thermographic data for the study of the diabetic foot. The equipment was designed to be a first-front instrument that would allow observing the temperature difference in the sole. This kind of instruments could be used in medical centers, from clinics to research institutes. The prototype was developed with a Raspberry Pi as an embedded system and the Lepton-Flir Development Kit as infrared (IR) sensor. The system generates three files per sample: A thermographic image, a matrix data of the sensor and a thermographic map on Celsius scale. It is intended that the data provided can be analyzed by visual inspection or processed to determine the evolution of treatment and pathology, in such a way that this instrument provides quantitative information represented by a thermographic map. The IR sensor was characterized to measure the superficial temperature of the human skin in a radiometric form. The characteristic equation allows predicting the temperature of each bolometer that constitutes the sensor array. The purpose and relevance of this instrument are to be able to carry out studies of non-ionizing imaging, related to the effects of blood perfusion, which are affected when the patient is detected with diabetes mellitus.