University of Houston

More than 1 million skin cancers are detected in U.S. each year, of which melanoma is the deadliest causing an estimated 8,110 deaths each year. Melanoma is a malignant tumor of melanocytes which are found predominantly in the skin but also in bowel, and in eye. It is one of the rarer types of skin cancer but it causes the majority of skin cancer-related deaths. However, if detected at an early stage, skin cancer has a very high cure rate, and it requires rather simple and economical treatment.

Recent developments in the research include development of imaging devices for automatic melanoma detection such as SolarScan and MelaFind to help increase accuracy of practitioners. But these devices lack portability because of their size and can only be used inside hospital environment. The objective of this research is to develop portable embedded handheld imaging devices that can work outside the hospital environment. These devices should be automated and augment the health care system by increasing efficiency and accuracy of practitioners using pattern recognition techniques.