Their monitoring approach is passive and requires no contact. The system could one day lead to early detection for cancer or other diseases by flagging subtle changes in body tissues.

The researchers have overcome the spectral ambiguity inherent in conventional thermal imaging, sharpening the texture and detail they can extract from images and removing the effects of heat from the environment surrounding a subject. They have published details of their work in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science.

“This could be a cornerstone for future broad biomedical diagnosis,” said Dingding Han, lead author on the study and a postdoctoral scholar in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. “With this phasor thermographic technology, we can enhance the accuracy and efficiency of thermal imaging to detect abnormalities. Phasor thermography has the capability of getting material segmentation, which is not possible with only pure thermal imaging.”