Band selection for mapping chromophores of skin tissue.

A numerical approach has been proposed to identify bands for optimally estimating the concentration of three types of viable chromophores within biological tissue. The bands are determined according to the condition number of absorption matrix associated with the attenuation coefficients of chromophores. The effectiveness of different sets of selected band combination was verified by using the spectral reflectance images of skin tissue acquired from standard forearm vascular occlusion tests via a spectroradiometer. Experimental results demonstrated that the concentration of chromophores within skin tissue could be estimated correctly and robustly only when the bands were deliberately selected.