Can a Smart phone attachment really detect cancer? Well according to Researchers at Washington State University, they have developed a sensor that uses a smartphone’s camera to detect several types of cancers at 99% accuracy with laboratory quality results.
The sensor can process up to eight blood or tissue samples at the same time and can detect the human protein interleukin-6 (IL-6) that is a known biological marker for lung, prostate, liver, breast and epithelial cancers.
A custom smartphone multi-view app uses the phone’s built-in camera and was developed to control the optical sensing parameters and to align each sample to the corresponding spectrometer channel. The captured images are converted into a spectrum in the visible wavelength range.
While smartphone spectrometers exist today, the WSU researchers said the eight-channel smartphone spectrometer is unique, and about $150 to produce.
So the goal is to to translate bio detection technologies used in laboratories to the field and clinic, so patients can get nearly instant diagnoses in a physician’s office, an ambulance or the emergency room.
Originally posted on IT World
