Use Your Cell Phone as a Microscope
November 25, 2009 by Jeanne Dupuis
Filed under Cell Phones
It seems that every day someone is coming up with another reason why cell phones are such useful tools so I wasn’t surprised when I read a New York Times article about how U.C.L.A found a way to adapt a cell phone to function as a microscope for screening diseases like anemia, tuberculosis and malaria.
Incredibly, the engineer who thought of this only spent about $10 in supplies to make it using common every day items.
The whole thing works by creating holgrams of slides and can be used in hospitals and diagnostic laboratories. The phone’s camera sensor can detect slides and then can send the information wirelessly to whomever needs it.
If they can find a way to make this work, it could make analyzing biological images so much easier, especially if they keep the cost of materials low.
image: Ozcan Research Group at U.C.L.A
