A non-contact method for locating traditional chinese medicine pulse positions in thermal image

Problem: Currently, the original pulse location method mainly uses subjective judgment with fingertip tactile or indirect measurement with array sensors, which will lead to significant errors. Aim: This paper aims to quantify the palpation position (PP) by using thermal imaging and the PP's physiological characteristics.Method: We propose a new noncontact method for locating traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) PPs via thermal images. Four steps are included: (1) Obtain one wrist thermal image through a thermal imaging acqui-sition platform. (2) Based on the edge detection algorithm, extract continuous wrist edges. (3) According to the physiological characteristics of the three PPs and the proportional unit of the body in TCM, obtain the x and y pixel coordi-nates of the three PPs. (4) Using the pixel-to-global coordinate transformation algorithm, obtain the x and y global coordinates of the three PPs.Results: The results show that the x and y distance standard deviations of the three PPs are within 3.78 and 3.53 mm, respectively.Conclusions: The method can measure the PP location with high accuracy, providing a new direct measurement method for accurate PP locating and laying a foundation for the next step of pulse wave acquisition.