Abstract:
Among various breast cancer screening modalities(x-ray mammography, magnetic resonance,
ultrasound, optical, positron emission mammography, molecular breast, breast specific gamma,
guided radiofrequency biopsy and electrical impedance imaging)recently proposed infrared
thermography proved to be an emerging screening technique due to its inherent capabilities(such as
non-contact, non-harmful, full field imaging) for early detection of breast cancer. It is highly desirable
to diagnose the cancer at an early stage for proper treatment. This present work highlights an
emissivity insensitive highly depth resolved infrared imaging technique and associated analysis for
early detection of the tumours present inside the breast at different depths simulated using a threedimensional finite element model. In order to make this study more realizable an additive white
Gaussian noise is incorporated in the generated simulated data. Further, the noisy data is analysed
using time domain data processing technique to obtain the respective phase information. This letters
presents the results obtained results for both normal breast as well as for the breast having four
tumours located at different depths. In order to compare the detection capabilities of the proposed
scheme quantitatively signal to noise ratio is taken as a figure of merit.
