VIVAS: An Ergonomic Low-Cost High-Resolution Portable Vein Finder for Phlebotomy

Abstract

Locating veins accurately is a common challenge in clinical settings, particularly with patients where veins are difficult to discern. The development of effective vein visualization technology is crucial for improving patient outcomes and minimizing procedural complications. This study aimed to design, develop, and evaluate a low-cost, high-resolution portable vein finder device. It was developed using affordable components and integrated imaging technology. The device captured images of veins in challenging patient scenarios. Four conventional image enhancement techniques were initially applied to these images. Subsequently, a novel image enhancement technique is proposed. The performance of each technique was qualitatively accessed using visual representation and histogram distribution and quantitatively assessed using the peak signal-to-noise ratio and structural similarity index measure. The proposed technique significantly outperformed the conventional methods. This indicates a superior enhancement of vein visibility, confirming the effectiveness of the proposed method. Thus, the newly developed vein finder, enhanced with the proposed image enhancement technique demonstrates significant potential for clinical use. It offers a reliable solution for vein detection in patients, potentially improving treatment accuracy.

Keywords

• Image processing
• near-infrared LEDs
• phlebotomy
• portable vein finder
• venipuncture