Simplifying vein detection for intravenous procedures: A comparative assessment through near‐infrared imaging system

Abstract

The intravenous (IV) injection procedure can be a challenging task, especially for individuals with thin veins, obesity, or patients with damaged and pigmented skin. Therefore, the IV procedure necessitates a portable medical device that can be used for academic demonstrations to train medical students or by health care professionals to perform venipuncture. Vein visualization with a vein detector is principally based on the interaction of blood components with wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS). In this paper, we first present the process of image formation in the spectral band of the near‐infrared region (NIR) of EMS. Then, we introduce the image acquisition system with image processing to extract the veins as a noninvasive vein detection method. A Raspberry Pi (Model 4B), along with a night vision camera, serves as an image acquisition tool to capture skin area illuminated by NIR. Following this, the data is transferred to the laptop where it can be filtered and processed using Python image processing tools before being viewed on the monitor. The results achieved through the device are quite encouraging, as the image recognition between veins and adjacent tissues from the skin sample can be clearly marked. The functionality, accuracy, and simplicity associated with this vein detection system make it a potential device for IV placement and the morphological study of disease detection.