2017-2018 Faculty Research Grants
Gunnar Lovhoiden (Engineering & Computer Science)
Near Infrared Imaging Lab
I am working on setting up a near infrared (NIR) imaging lab in Harrigan Hall. I have research space and have acquired a high resolution NIR capable camera (50.6 MP Canon EOS 5DS) with a single macro lens. I still need a custom PC with lots of RAM (32 – 64GB) and dual hard drives as well as a high resolution photo-quality monitor for image processing and viewing, a light tripod with wheels for image acquisition, and additional lenses, filters and polarizers and precision test targets. I will design and construct custom light sources using LEDs and batteries. I want to establish how commercial digitizing electronics and sensors compares to scientific digitizing electronics and sensors by using a commercial color digital camera converted to monochrome rather than a scientific camera. The argument for scientific imagers used to be their superior electronics, so I look forward to discovering how well a modified commercial camera can perform. Also, exploring wound healing, I want to answer the question: “Can (NIR) imaging determine how well an open wound is healing?” Although the role red blood cells (RBCs) play in wound healing is not fully understood, it is proposed that the number of RBCs indicate how well the healing is progressing. I believe this imager is necessary to answer this question. If we discover that NIR imaging can determine wound healing we will use the proposed imager to establish the resolution and what wavelength light source that will be required to document wound healing.