I-Corps: Thermal Infrared Sensitivity Enhancer Supported Breast Cancer Screening Method

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发针对乳腺癌筛查的热成像工具。随着未来人工智能的结合，人们设想一种无需技术人员或医生帮助就能检测乳腺癌的家庭筛查工具。在此过程中收集的大量数据可用于计算机分析，以进一步改善肿瘤的诊断和治疗，挽救成千上万的生命。此外，该方法无痛、经济、方便，可进行更广泛的筛查。从长远来看，用于筛查的增强型热成像工具也可用于筛查和监测其他疾病。其他应用范围很广，包括动物疾病的诊断，或改进半导体行业的集成电路检测方法。这个I-Corps项目是为了探索热红外灵敏度增强器（TISE）的发展，这是一种具有工程材料结构的薄膜，用于热成像（使用热像仪成像温度分布）。实验结果表明，TISE将温度分辨率从40 mK提高到约3 mK，推动了环境热成像的应用边界。提出的技术使热像仪能够捕获更多的温度细节。结合热红外摄像机，该技术提供了一种增强的热成像乳腺癌筛查方法，有望提供与当前标准乳房x光检查相似的灵敏度。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Broader impacts/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of thermal imaging tools to target breast cancer screening. With future incorporation of artificial intelligence, a home screening kit is envisioned that detects breast cancer without the assistance of technicians or doctors. The large amount of data collected in the process could be used for computer analysis to further improve oncology diagnosis and treatment, saving thousands of lives. In addition, the method is painless, economical, and convenient, enabling broader screening. In the longer term, the enhanced thermal imaging tool used for screening may be also applied to screening and monitoring of other diseases. Other applications are far-ranging and include diagnosis of animal diseases, or improved integrated circuit inspection methods for the semiconductor industry.This I-Corps project is to explore development of the Thermal Infrared Sensitivity Enhancer (TISE), a thin film with an engineered materials structure, for thermography (use of a thermal camera to image temperature distributions). Laboratory results show that TISE improves the temperature resolution from 40 mK to approximately 3 mK, pushing the application boundary of ambient thermography. The proposed technology enables thermal cameras to capture more temperature details. In combination with a thermal infrared camera, the technology provides an enhanced thermography breast cancer screening method expected to offer similar sensitivity to mammography, the current standard.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.