Design & Construction of a Vein Detector Device

Peripheral venous access is one of the most frequent procedures performed in all hospitals and clinics to either deliver intravenous (IV) therapy through a peripheral cannula or to perform venipuncture to draw blood samples. Peripheral venous access may be difficult, time-consuming, painful, and frustrating for children, obese patients, dark skin patients, and patients previously treated with chemotherapy. In the past two years, during Covid-19 pandemic, the need for peripheral venous access has been escalated tremendously either for drawing blood samples or cannulation of intensive care patients. In this project a vein detector device is designed and integrated to assist the process of vein detection & selection. The device based upon the utilization of near infrared (NIR) light source to capture the naked-eye invisible veins that are located under skin to a depth up to 2 mm. The device is mainly composed of a NIR LED light source, an Infrared (IR) camera, a Raspberry Pi microcontroller, LCD touch screen, a casing to accommodate all of these components, and a telescopic holder. A light intensity analysis has been performed to find the optimum number & distribution of LEDs. The captured image is digitally processed using an image processing module runs on the Raspberry Pi. Also, a simple Graphical User Interface (GUI) module is designed to allow the operator to fine tuning the quality of the image displayed on the touch screen. The device casing is designed on the SolidWorks and manufactured using a 3-D printer.