Tongue imaging system for TCM practice

Abstract

One of the important parts of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is tongue diagnosis. It is believed in TCM that by observing the features of the tongue, the results can show the current state and condition of the various organs in the body. However, as tongue diagnosis is very dependent on visual judgement as well as personal experiences, this has led to a fall in the consistency of TCM. A patient may visit two different practitioners within the same day and obtain different diagnosis on their condition as a result of this. Due to the inconsistency, there has been a lack of scientific approach and a systematic way of documenting for TCM diagnosis. As a result, TCM has issues regarding its reliability. Although there are several system around the world that have been created to ensure uniformity in the diagnosis of the tongue, there were various reasons such as cost and mobility that has led to the rejection of these systems by practitioners. In this Final Year Project (FYP), the author will aim to increase the plethora of phones that are compatible with the device. With advancements in technology, there are now more mobile phones that are able to take raw photos with the ability to change its shutter speed as well as ISO like what a professional camera is able to do. On top of that, the quality of the image produced are of a quality that can be processed for further diagnosis as well. This project is a continuation of previous FYP’s efforts, where many of the basics such as colour correction script, and light environment has been completed. The objective of this FYP would be to improve on existing work and to: (i) Improve on the existing mobile tongue imaging system to increase its compatibility (ii) Design a data transmission and processing system The end product would be to increase the mobility of the tongue imaging system and increase its ability to convince practitioners to use the same system for TCM. This would then be able to contribute to the systematic factor of TCM, increasing its overall reliability.