SBIR-STTR Award

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is focused on technology to improve microscopy through the development of a highly-innovative, low-cost, high-resolution, spectral (multi-color) imaging video microscope camera architecture for use in the shortwave infrared (SWIR) waveband. Low cost SWIR microscopy supports compelling medical applications in microcirculation imaging and infrared (IR) fluorescence microspectroscopy. Although ubiquitous and cheap, CMOS cameras have low sensitivity in near-infrared (NIR) and no sensitivity at SWIR wavelengths. This project proposes to apply recent scientific advances in the area of Compressive Sensing to the design of a uniquely capable scientific instrument at a fraction of the cost of current cameras. This instrument will achieve a multi-color, staring high-resolution imaging capability while requiring only a one-dimensional detector array and no steering mirror, significantly reducing system cost and increasing acquisition speed. This project will develop advanced algorithms, a compact opto-mechanical design, and high-speed, low-noise data capture and processing electronics.

The broader impact/commercial potential of this research is to open the multi-billion dollar microscopy community to the benefits of low-cost, multi-color, SWIR video imaging. This will enhance and possibly transform clinical modalities in dynamic multi-fluorescence imaging, in vivo functional imaging, tissue viability and pathology studies, and advanced imaging modalities such as optical coherence tomography. Medical imaging research is showing growing interest in the NIR and SWIR wavelengths, particularly in the development of IR fluorophores which produce practically no autofluorescence background while simultaneously enhancing tissue penetration depth. Additionally, multispectral IR detectors acquire a wealth of chemical information for chemically complex, heterogeneous biomaterials. However, investigations have been hampered in this regime because reasonably-priced, multi-color, SWIR cameras are not available. Microcirculation imaging for microvascular distributions and flow mapping represents an excellent entry point and a good match for the optical and electronic capabilities of this technology. Also, SWIR fluorescence molecular imaging with wavelength-tuned, single-walled carbon nanotubes will benefit in biological and material science applications. An affordable multispectral SWIR imaging platform will advance many other commercial applications including food safety, solar panel and semiconductor inspection, machine vision, navigation, security and surveillance.

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is to open price-sensitive research, medical imaging and surveillance communities to the benefits of the shortwave infrared (SWIR) waveband without the complexity or expense of traditional hyperspectral systems. The multispectral SWIR imager developed in this project supports medical microscope and small animal imaging of infrared fluorescence for cancer detection, localization and excision. SWIR fluorophores produce no autofluorescence background while simultaneously enhancing tissue penetration depth and efficiency by factors of 10 or more. InView?s imaging platform can build large markets by the development of specialized image processing and analytical methods for specific applications in pharmaceutical manufacturing, food safety, solar panel and semiconductor inspection, machine vision, and navigation. InView?s camera platform embodies the revolutionary new sampling theory of compressive sensing, a field whose applications in information processing have grown exponentially. The innovative architecture and the state-of-the-art software already embedded in the camera and user interface can enhance and possibly transform lab and clinical modalities in dynamic multi-fluorescence imaging, in vivo functional imaging, tissue viability and pathology studies, and advanced imaging modalities such as optical coherence tomography.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase 2 project will result in an operational low-cost, multi-color shortwave infrared (SWIR) camera that can be directly mounted on microscopes for supporting compelling micro-imaging applications in scientific, industrial and biomedical imaging. The electro-optical, opto-mechanical, and processing software architecture of the camera is based on Compressive Sensing, a new sampling technique that reduces data collection requirements for high resolution imaging to well below Nyquist limits. This design does not use expensive sensor arrays or complicated spectrometers. Instead, high-resolution pictures are computationally constructed from single-detector measurements. The ?single-pixel camera? architecture was commercialized by InView as a monochromatic SWIR imager. In Phase 1, InView successfully demonstrated that only simple modifications to its monochromatic camera design can produce full color imaging. The objective of Phase 2 is to modify only the components that are necessary to transform the existing monochromatic camera into a multi-color imager with the overall design goal of maintaining the existing camera size, weight and cost so that InView can offer low-cost multispectral SWIR imaging to the price sensitive microscopy community.