A New Zealand company has developed the “Silhouette Mobile,” an infrared scanning device that builds and records a 3D model of a wound to assist in the monitoring of healing wounds. The Silhouette Mobile modules plug into PDAs (probably only Pocket PC-based), then broadcast patients’ information back to a central database over Wi-Fi or cellular data networks.
Actually, looking at this again, I’m not sure it actually builds a 3D model, per se, although they do record “surface and depth measurement.” At the very least, it takes “photographic images; quantitative measures; other user-entered wound assessment data.” Either way, a red scanning beam means Dr. Future is on the case.
Product Page [AranzMedical.com via MedGadget via Oh Gizmo]
Even looking at it again you’ve made this sound cooler than it actually is.
This is just a regular digital camera with a couple of bar-code scanner LEDs bolted to the sides. Because the beams are parallel and a known distance apart, the image-processing software can extrapolate limited spatial information from the image such as scale.
Unfortunately, from a gadget chic perspective, swiping the beams across the wound in classic medical sci-fi fashion wouldn’t do anything useful even though it would look cooler.
Ah, you are probably right. But still: BEAMS!