Single camera imaging system for color and near-infrared fluorescence image guided surgery

Near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence imaging systems have been developed for image guided surgery in recent years. However, current systems are typically bulky and work only when surgical light in the operating room (OR) is off. We propose a single camera imaging system that is capable of capturing NIR fluorescence and color images under normal surgical lighting illumination. Using a new RGB-NIR sensor and synchronized NIR excitation illumination, we have demonstrated that the system can acquire both color information and fluorescence signal with high sensitivity under normal surgical lighting illumination. The experimental results show that ICG sample with concentration of 0.13 μM can be detected when the excitation irradiance is 3.92 mW/cm² at an exposure time of 10 ms.