Design and implementation of a protocol for acquisition and processing of infrared images obtained from hands

Disorders associated with repeated trauma account for about 60% of all occupational illnesses, being Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS), the most consulted today. Infrared Thermography (IT) has come to play an important role in the field of medicine, where diseases are detected by temperature variations. In this paper we present the extraction of temperature variations in space and time from hands of healthy and ill subjects with CTS. These features are expected to give support to the analysis of CTS using IT. The paper presents a theoretical framework of CTS, a protocol to acquire infrared images and create a standardized collection. The techniques used for image registration and feature extraction are included. Finally, the results obtained with representative features in images of healthy subjects are presented and compared against features extracted from patientss with CTS.