Shuji TAUE, Mayumi FUKUDA, Hirotsugu YAMAMOTO, Yoshio HAYASAKI and Nobuo NISHIDA

Department of Optical Science and Technology, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Tokushima, 2-1 Minamijosanjima-cho, Tokushima 770-8506, Japan

(Received September 30, 2004; Accepted February 7, 2005)

We propose a probe for near-infrared spectroscopy that enables exploratory diagnosis and the simultaneous measurement of metabolic status and dynamics of the body of a subject. The probe has a red light emitting diode for indicating its position in addition to a set of two near-infrared light emitting diodes and a photodetector for near-infrared spectroscopy measurement. The red light is detected by a camera and the probe position is obtained by processing the captured images. There are two methods of using the probe: In one method, the user scans the probe on the body surface to obtain a spatial distribution of metabolic status; in the other method, the probe is fixed on the body and simultaneously measures metabolic status and movement of the body to investigate their relationship.

Key words: near-infrared spectroscopy, position sensor, metabolic status, scanning operation, tracking operation