Posted on 11/08/2009 7:19:51 PM PST by neverdem
MICROSCOPES are invaluable tools to identify blood and other cells when screening for diseases like anemia, tuberculosis and malaria. But they are also bulky and expensive.
An engineer at U.C.L.A. has adapted cellphones to do the work of microscopes in screening for diseases.
Now an engineer, using software that he developed and about $10 worth of off-the-shelf hardware, has adapted cellphones to substitute for microscopes.
“We convert cellphones into devices that diagnose diseases,” said Aydogan Ozcan, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and member of the California NanoSystems Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, who created the devices. He has formed a company, Microskia, to commercialize the technology.
The adapted phones may be used for screening in places far from hospitals, technicians or diagnostic laboratories, Dr. Ozcan said.
In one prototype, a slide holding a finger prick of blood can be inserted over the phone’s camera sensor. The sensor detects the slide’s contents and sends the information wirelessly to a hospital or regional health center. For instance, the phones can detect the asymmetric shape of diseased blood cells or other abnormal cells, or note an increase of white blood cells, a sign of infection, he said.
Dr. Ozcan’s devices provide a simple solution to a complex problem, said Ahmet Yildiz, an assistant professor of physics and molecular cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley.
“This is an inexpensive way to eliminate a microscope and sample biological images with a basic cellphone camera instead,” he said. “If you are in a place where getting to a microscope or medical facility is not straightforward, this is a really smart solution.”
Neven Karlovac, the chief executive of Microskia in Los Angeles, said that some of the company’s products would be adaptations of regular cellphones. For phones without cameras, or phones...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Good idea
They have invented a medical Tricorder like on Star Trek.. :)
Best wishes with this. Of course, with Obamacare destroying the incentive for free market exploitation of good ideas, it may never see the light of day.
If Waxman did not invent this then we probably do not need it. Socialism will provide to each according to his needs!
... there’s an app for that.
I’ve fooled around with the optics required to see really small things, my experience is that you need at least a couple hundred dollars worth of glass to make this happen. The lens on a cell phone isn’t high enough quality to discern the details required for this type of work.
It is obvious that you just ‘fooled around’ with optics.
It is also obvious you didn’t read the article since they are getting 3D holograms from which they reconstruct high res 3D images.
It helps to read PRIOR to commenting.
Lurking’
LOL... My first thought.....
I wasn’t aware that holograms were made from interference patterns. With the right software imaging programs, this might be able to recognize telltale morphology of various microbes in different samples of blood, saliva, etc.
When you look up at a clear blue sky and see the 'floaters' in your field of view, you are seeing the shadows of individual blood cells and other cellular debris inside your eye.
No lenses between them and your retina...
Kirk: Is he allright Bones?
Bones: He’s dead Jim..
:)
Interesting article. I’ve done a lot of work with polarizing microscopes and SEMs.
The cellcam bit sounds like my first homemade microscope (@ age 10) -- the lens from a penlight bulb...
Hmmm....
too late....The Israeli, has been using an electronic hand-held
medical device (in combat) during the Lebanese conflict.
according to Israeli Media reports.
I need Karnac’s power to really deduce what ‘magic’ it was they pulled off here ... suffice to to say, the use of a 2-D focal plane solid-state imaging array (as used in a cell phone or cheap camera) is the heart of this device; said researcher, however, didn’t just order several focal plane array imagers from a vendor or chip supplier, but rather adapted already constructed devices to a different purpose, saving him the trouble of designing/developing the hardware/firmware drivers (incl software) to make the imagers usable (extracting the 2-D array of ‘light’ data appearing on the top of the sensor/imager chip) ...
Those Israelis... They have everything. :) God bless em.
He has. 
I got that impression. I don't have a cell phone, so I have no first hand experience other than taking on someone else's cell phones.
The wireless and audio features of what makes a cell phone a cell phone don't have much to do with this, or am I missing something?
I had the impression that the wireless ability can transmit the images. Maybe _Jim could clarify any misconceptions.
Ditto :)
Ever hear of a "simple" microscope? The first microscope ever invented used a polished glass bead as the lens and produced sharp images at several hundred magnifications, although the image was dim due to a small aperature. The sample to be viewed had to nearly touch the lens, due to the short focal length. Today it would be a simple matter to install such a spheric lens above the sensor of a cell phone. A glass microsocpe slide could be laid directly onto the cell phone if the lens was recessed just a bit.
They're not actually looking at images of the cellsThe result, AFAIAC is an image; reiterating, capturing the 'data' off the 2-D array results in 'an image'; imagery. Not to be construed with anything else, being very generic in application here since I know sqat about the size or nature of what they're trying to capture or characterize. I would spend more time on the subject, but more pressing matters present themselves.
I had the impression that the wireless ability can transmit the images.That's my take also; they got themselves a 'twofer' with this creation!
"The result, AFAIAC is an image; reiterating, capturing the 'data' off the 2-D array results in 'an image'; imagery.
The key element you left out is that I said the pic's a hologram. A hologram is a holographic image, but those images contain no recognizable rendering of blood cells discernable with the unaided eye, or with a microscope for that matter. They look like blank images to the unaided eye. Those holograms can be mathematically scaled up, then converted to magnified images of the cells.
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