A Programmable DSP Development Platform for Automated Detection of Melanoma

A Bluetooth-enabled handheld device, which is the size of a cell phone, is being developed to assist medical practitioners in the analysis of skin lesions and accurate detection of early melanoma. The device can capture images of the lesion, process them in real-time, and indicate the probability that the lesion is malignant. A desktop-based system has been developed that implements skin-lesion analysis automatically with high degree of accuracy. In this paper, we present a simple prototype, based on the Texas Instruments TMS320DM642 Video/Imaging fixed-point digital signal processor, which implements a few basic functions of the desktop system, including image capture, segmentation, and display of the extracted lesion.