Apparatus and method for measuring a tissue analyte such as bilirubin using the Brewster's angle

摘要

A tissue analyte measuring device (2) includes a light source (4) structured to emit unpolarized light toward the skin surface of a subject, and a detector assembly (8) configured to receive light reflected from the skin surface of the subject and the transcutaneous tissues of the subject, the detector assembly including a polarizing filter (12) and a number of light detector subassemblies (14). The polarizing filter is structured to filter out s-polarized light and pass only p-polarized light to light detector subassemblies. The light source is structured and positioned to emit the unpolarized light in a manner wherein the unpolarized light will exit the measuring device at a predetermined angle with respect to a normal to a light emitting plane of the measuring device, wherein the predetermined angle is an angle (the Brewster's angle) at which only s-polarized light will be reflected by the skin surface when the unpolarized light is incident thereon.

主权项

1. A tissue analyte measuring device (2), comprising:
a light source (4) structured and positioned to emit unpolarized light toward a skin surface (6) of a subject at a predetermined angle at which only s-polarized light will be reflected by the skin surface when the measuring device is positioned adjacent to the skin surface; a detector assembly (8) configured to receive light reflected from the subject including light reflected by the skin surface of the subject and by transcutaneous tissues of the subject, the detector assembly including a polarizing filter (12) and a number of light detector subassemblies (14), the polarizing filter being structured to filter out s-polarized light and pass only p-polarized light to the number of light detector subassemblies; and one or more physical computer processors configured by computer readable instructions to control the light source and the detector assembly and to compute a measurement relating to the analyte from the measured p-polarized light.