A high-speed camera for monitoring vegetation from space being adapted to look deeper into human tissues for detecting skin diseases

A high-speed camera for monitoring vegetation from space and combating famine in Africa is being adapted to spot changes in human skin cells, invisible to the naked eye, to help diagnose skin diseases like cancer. With the support of ESA and the Belgian Space Technology Transfer Programme, the extraordinary digital infrared sensor from ESA’s Proba-V vegetation-scanning satellite is being adapted for several non-space applications. Mounted on a standard medical scanner, the space sensor can help doctors to look deeper into human tissues for detecting skin diseases earlier. It also has a bright future in industry: it has already been shown to improve solar cell production as well as spotting defective items on production lines.