Quantitative measurements of biological/chemical concentrations using smartphone cameras

TL;DR

This paper introduces a smartphone-based imaging system that quantifies biological and chemical concentrations, enabling portable and cost-effective analysis comparable to laboratory instruments.

Contribution

The study develops a novel optical and computational system using smartphones to accurately measure assay concentrations in a portable format.

Findings

System estimates concentrations comparable to commercial instruments.

Experiments conducted on fluorescein, RNA Mango, milk, and yeast.

Potential for portable diagnostics in remote areas.

Abstract

This paper presents a smartphone-based imaging system capable of quantifying the concentration of an assortment of biological/chemical assay samples. The main objective is to construct an image database which characterizes the relationship between color information and concentrations of the biological/chemical assay sample. For this aim, a designated optical setup combined with image processing and data analyzing techniques was implemented. A series of experiments conducted on selected assays, including fluorescein, RNA Mango, homogenized milk and yeast have demonstrated that the proposed system estimates the concentration of fluorescent materials and colloidal mixtures comparable to currently used commercial and laboratory instruments. Furthermore, by utilizing the camera and computational power of smartphones, eventual development can be directed toward extremely compact, inexpensive and portable analysis and diagnostic systems which will allow experiments and tests to be conducted in remote or impoverished areas.