Non-Contact Stiffness Imager

We newly propose the Non-Contact Stiffness Imager that can provide us with the pattern of stiffness distribution of environment. It is composed of a force probe and a displacement sensor capable of obtaining area information. The main application of the Stiffness Imager is diagnosis, especially for examining whether there exist tissues suffered by disease or not. In order to show the effectiveness, we implement the Stiffness Imager into an endoscope camera for obtaining inner stiffness information as well as surface information of stomach. Basic experimental results are also shown.