$3 Microscope Plugs into Cell Phones

[CC-Conrad Clyburn-MedForeSight]

Colleagues,

As reported in MIT Tech Review ... 

... A small digital microscope that costs just a few dollars can plug into a cell phone and perform basic medical diagnostics that would ordinarily require expensive lab equipment. The microscope, which uses no lenses, saves on cost and weight by using algorithms to get more information from images...

...  The device can generate blood counts and identify disease cells and bacteria from simple images sent through a USB cord to a cell phone that uses software to processes the data. The latest version of the microscope integrates an interference-based contrast method to provide better images in addition to diagnostic information...

... The device made by researchers led by Aydogan Ozcan, professor of electrical and biomedical engineering at UCLA. It has only two key hardware components: a light-emitting diode to illuminate the sample and an light-sensing chip. These components each cost about 30 to 40 cents...

...  Slides smeared with samples are loaded into the microscope through a small drawer that
sits between the LED and the light sensor. A USB port carries power and data between the scope and a cell phone. The tiny microscope measures about six centimeters high and four centimeters on each side; it weighs just 46 grams...

Read on at: http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/25286/?nlid=2973

ENJOY!

CC