How Can a Smartphone Be Turned Into a Scientific Medical Tool?
- Posted on October 5, 2011 at 3:52pm by
Liz Klimas
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For physicians working in remote areas without access to laboratory technology, having easy access to a microscope could mean faster, potentially life-saving diagnoses.
If it were a tool that many of these scientists already had, it would be even better. Well, many of them already have it strapped to their hip.
NPR reports physicists have begun researching technology to turn a smartphone into a microscope, an idea that started when a drop of water settled on the phone’s camera lens:
A few years ago, [Sebastian] Wachsmann-Hogiu [at the Center for Biophotonics, Science and Technology at the University of California, Davis] was thinking about creating tools to help doctors do tests right at the site where they’re caring for patients, something called “point-of-care testing.”
He‘d heard about bioengineer Daniel Fletcher’s work developing a low-tech mobile microscope called CellScope. But Wachsmann-Hogiu was interested in making something even simpler. And he noticed that when water droplets formed on the top of his iPhone camera, they magnified the image. So he took a tiny lens — just 1 millimeter in diameter — and attached it to the phone to try to get a similar effect.
“With that we were able to record great microscopic images,” he tells Shots. His team set out to test a range of lenses between 1 and 3 millimeters that would get different magnification. The smaller the lens, the more it magnifies.
“We found that the small lenses are good for microscopy of blood cells while the larger lenses could be good for skin and dermatological applications,” he says.
Upper row: images from a traditional microscope. Bottom row: images from a cell phone microscope. (Image: Smith ZJ, Chu K, Espenson AR, Rahimzadeh M, Gryshuk A, et al.)
Wachsmann-Hogiu and his colleagues went one step further and even created an attachment that would help turn the phone into a spectrometer using a plastic tube, black electrical tap and the camera’s light:
The tape has narrow slits that allow beams of light from a blood sample, for example, to enter and exit the tube. This grating smears, or spreads, the light into a spectrum of colors that doctors could use like a fingerprint to identify various molecules.
In a medical setting, the smartphone spectrometer could be used to measure oxygen levels in the blood. Levels that are too low or too high can be a clue that something else is wrong with the heart or many other organs.
Top panel, cropped image recorded by the cell phone spectrometer pointed at a standard fluorescent light fixture. White box indicates area used to determine spectrum in lower panel. Lower panel (top), an image of the spectrum corresponding to area in the white box in the top panel. Lower panel (bottom), a comparison of the spectra of the same fluorescent light fixture taken with both the cell phone spectrometer (blue) and Ocean Optics (oo) spectrometer (red). (Image: Smith ZJ, Chu K, Espenson AR, Rahimzadeh M, Gryshuk A, et al.)
NPR reports that even the simplest smartphone with a camera of one to two megapixels will be able to serve in these roles. Next, Wachsmann-Hogiu will be testing this technology in the field to see how effective it could actually be in rural areas.
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jmcenanly
Posted on October 6, 2011 at 6:33amActually, the Iphone is more advanced than the device used in the old series. The prop that they used was about the size of a paperback dictionary and had a really small display screen. Of course, if they had tried to show a simulated Iphone, who would have believed it in 1966?
Report Post »thank you steveJobs!
Dune
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 9:28pmBeam me up Scottie
Report Post »ooskerDoo
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 5:28pmGetting closer and closer to 1960′s Star Trek…
Report Post »closetotheedge
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 10:20amStar Trek? way beyoud that. From the new i-phones that State Police,local and Fed they do download all your info on your phone into evidence again’st you.14th Amend; Freedom to be free. The card that is in the works, already here, is all info on us. It‘s sinister and it’s called “the Mark the Beast” which we all know of,and it’s here. The indoctrination of the youngest on up that this Mark,fed to us by Smart-cards,Debit Cards etc. are preparing to Mark all people,with a ‘chip’ in hand or forehead and anyone who goes again’st it and refuseing it shall not be able to buy or sell at all. It’s here. In Mex,they are issueing Bio-metric cards to children thru 17 containing all your info‘ but they will be lost so the next and best thing is to implant a ’chip’ in to their hands,updated as needed. Food card anyone,or etc….Oba n Co, plus the New World Order,to chip all of us by 2017. the total control of all. Stand-up or cower? Matthew 24.Read it. A Christian Patriot
Report Post »stinkybisquit
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 5:26pmBeen there, done that! http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/cell-phone-lenses/
Report Post »arnold.williams
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 6:00pmGood link, impressive lenses. Fits perfectly with the article. Thanks.
Report Post »motherof18
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 4:47pmIf you were pulled over for a headlight out on your car and the police found images of blood cells on your cell phone, you’d be spending the rest of your life in prison.
Report Post »SquishyBear
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 6:52pmI dont get it.
Report Post »Dougral Supports Israel
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 4:46pmSounds nice except for the fact that under Obamacare the government would probably declare itself entitled to the health info so they could monitor your compliance with their dietary rules.
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 4:40pmCool.
Now to get me some “black electrical TAP”
Where are the editors?
Report Post »ZengaPA65
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 6:13pmFinding more headlines to write using words like scientific, futuristic, space-age and nuke-a-lar no doubt.
Report Post »right-wing-waco
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 4:06pmThe next iPhone, (iPhone 5 or 6)
Report Post »Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 4:02pmThey already did a story about a smartphone being used in Africa with malaria patients. Something about an app, I believe. Starting to sound more and more like tri-corders.
Report Post »Eddie
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 4:09pmThere’s a simulated tricorder app for the smartphones! I have it on mine. Pure entertainment of course but after seeing this article, I agree that perhaps one day a REAL tricorder app may be in the works! Amazing technology we’re seeing nowadays!
Report Post »vennoye
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 4:24pmWonderful to see them used for something better than angry birds!
Report Post »dwa81
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 6:39pmits a start but i still want my phaser
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