Development and characterization of a modular hyperspectral imaging system

Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) combines both imaging and spectroscopy, providing insight into tissue structure as well as chemistry, that is not offered by other imaging methods.
We present the development and characterization of a highly modular, custom built, visible and near-infrared HSI system with a custom broadband LED light source and variable field of view and resolution. System was calibrated using emission lines of standard gas lamps. Both spatial and spectral scales were calibrated, with spatial step as low as 65 μm and spectral step of 0.5 nm. Actual spectral resolutions was evaluated to be 2.9 nm, while spatial resolution was 0.1 mm. Stability and homogeneity of illumination were also verified. The instrument was compared with a reference spectrometer using thin glass cells filled with ink. Its clinical potential is also demonstrated by examples from biomedical field, such as a standard cuff test and pre-clinical murine abdominal wall imaging.
Following the calibration and verification, the system is confirmed as a reliable, highly modular and modifiable instrument that can be adapted and used in general or very specific problems in fields of biomedical research, material sciences, food QA, cultural heritage and others.