The MISTM imager was developed in St Andrews to take thermal pictures of the body. Millimetre waves are able to penetrate a few mm into skin before being absorbed or reflected compared, to a few thousandths of a mm for infrared. Potentially, they can be used to look at the temperature of the skin at greater depths. Millimetre Waves are ideal for medical imaging as they travel through bandages. Scans can be performed without removing dressings thus reducing the risk of infection.

MISTM stands for the Medical Imager for Sub-surface Temperature Mapping and is currently being tested at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee.

On the right you can see the colours that you will see in the photos. You can see what the colours mean in terms of temperature. The numbers are in degrees celsius. On the right are (parts of) a number of pictures taken using MISTM. Can you tell which parts of the body are shown? Click on the images for the answer and an explanation of some of the interesting features that they show.

Look at the objects on the left - can you tell what all the objects are, hover over the picture to reveal what it looks like in the visible. Notice that the metal objects show up well: they reflect the cold surroundings. Plastic is see-through so the handles of the green scissors almost vanish.The pile of coins are less bright than the single coins because they are reflecting different surroundings.