According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is one of the most prevalent diseases in the world. It is also associated with a high mortality index. Diabetic foot is one of its main complications, and it comprises the development of plantar ulcers that could result in an amputation. Several works report that thermography is useful to detect changes in the plantar temperature, which could give rise to a higher risk of ulceration. However, the plantar temperature distribution does not follow a particular pattern in diabetic patients, thereby making it difficult to measure the changes. Thus, there is an interest in improving the success of the analysis and classification methods that help to detect abnormal changes in the plantar temperature. All this leads to the use of computer-aided systems, such as those involved in artificial intelligence (AI), which operate with highly complex data structures. This paper compares machine learning-based techniques with Deep Learning (DL) structures. We tested common structures in the mode of transfer learning, including AlexNet and GoogleNet. Moreover, we designed a new DL-structure, which is trained from scratch and is able to reach higher values in terms of accuracy and other quality measures. The main goal of this work is to analyze the use of AI and DL for the classification of diabetic foot thermograms, highlighting their advantages and limitations. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first proposal of DL networks applied to the classification of diabetic foot thermograms. The experiments are conducted over thermograms of DM and control groups. After that, a multi-level classification is performed based on a previously reported thermal change index. The high accuracy obtained shows the usefulness of AI and DL as auxiliary tools to aid during the medical diagnosis.

The advances in infrared thermography during recent years have opened new possibilities for its use in medical diagnosis. The detection of complications related to diabetic foot is one of the many uses of this technology. This paper presents a new public plantar thermogram database composed of 334 plantar thermograms from 122 diabetic subjects and 45 non-diabetic subjects. Each thermogram includes four extra images with their respective temperature file, corresponding to the four plantar angiosomes. The database is expected to provide a valuable source to promote research about the potential of infrared thermography for the early diagnosis of diabetic foot problems. The work describes the plantar thermogram acquisition protocol, including the acquisition system and the proper preparation of the subject. It also presents a brief review of the techniques used in previous works for segmentation, registration and correction of feet posture.

A methodology for automatic incipient broken rotor bar detection in induction motors (IMs) is presented. Sparse representations of signals are applied as a diagnosis technique. The novelty of this technique is that it can analyze the frequency spectra from vibration signals even when the differences among signals are small. This representation allows decomposing or reconstructing signals through a trained dictionary that has learned the features of one specific group/class. The main feature of this paper is the use of overcomplete dictionaries trained from sets of signals with faults to be detected. In this way, trained dictionaries perform the decomposition of signals using the orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) algorithm. The decomposition is evaluated and classified by error-based criteria and a majority decision classifier, allowing the detection of early damage, ranging from 1 mm to one broken bar. The detection is performed by the decomposition of vibration signals from three axes (x, y, and z) of IMs under three load conditions (unloaded, half loaded, and three-fourths loaded) and different levels of damage (healthy or 0 mm, 1-9 mm, and one broken bar). These signals are processed by the Fourier transform and the spectrum obtained is evaluated by the OMP algorithm. Finally, the retrieved information is evaluated and the diagnosis is given. All algorithms are developed in MATLAB software and the detection accuracy is higher than 90% for damages as small as 1 mm.

The relevance of the development of monitoring systems for rotating machines is not only the ability to detect failures but also how early these failures can be detected. The purpose of this paper is to present an experimental study of partially damaged rotor bar in induction motor under different load conditions based on discrete wavelet transform analysis. The approach is based on the extraction of features from vibration signals at different level of damage and three mechanical load conditions. The proposed analysis is reliable for tracking the damage in rotor bar. The paper presents an analysis and extraction of vibration features for partially damaged rotor bar in induction motors. The experimental analysis shows the change in behavior of vibration due to load condition and progressive damage.

The near-infrared band of the electromagnetic spectrum has become an important tool for enhancing image quality. Commonly, outdoor color images are degraded by bad weather conditions that lead to a loss of contrast and fine details in color images since light scattering produces attenuation and smoothing effects. Despite the fact that current Visible-NIR fusion methods achieve image enhancement features, some issues like edge preservation and color oversaturation still need to be addressed. In this work, a method that performs a selective Visible-NIR fusion of the most relevant image structures through top-hat transform is proposed. The performance of the method is evaluated by quantifying the new information added to the image and the change in color. Experimental results show a high degree of detail in preserving the edges while maintaining the color of the image. Moreover, the proposed method demonstrates that the image quality improvements were not significantly affected by a change in the color space.