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DIY Biochemical Scanner From a Hacked CD Drive

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the bargain-health-care dept.

holy_calamity writes "Turns out hacking two extra light sensors into a CD drive can turn it into a lab scanner to read the results of high-accuracy immunoassays used to detect disease markers or pathogens, New Scientist reports. The drive proved able to detect pesticides at concentrations as low as 0.02 micrograms per liter."

6 of 70 comments (clear)

  1. Too bad. by KGIII · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I would have liked to get more information. The whole "DIY" seems a bit misleading but a fun story to read. Much thanks.

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  2. Missing the Point by ivormi · · Score: 3, Insightful

    However, Corran believes that the Spanish team's procedure needs to be developed further. "They still do part of the assay in a normal plate. Until the whole thing can be done on a CD it doesn't have a great technical advantage."

    I think he's missing the initial point here. The point is to reduce the overall cost of being capable of running the test, not in vastly increasing the efficiency of running a massive batch of tests this way. Certainly there's downstream potential for it, but by itself, this provides testing capabilities to a much wider set of labs.
  3. Why so expensive? by SQLServerBen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The real question is, if the laboratory machines are using more or less the same technology as the CD drives, why do the actual lab machines cost so much more? From TFA, the machine this replaces costs 30-60k Euro, compared to 15 Euro for a generic CD drive.

    1. Re:Why so expensive? by db32 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The answer is simple. Demand. Lets assume the size of the mfg plants, number of employees, and so on are the same for 2 companies, one making the lab equipment one making generic CD drives. I think it is safe to assume that the lab machine is going to be more expensive on materials alone, but not by the amount in the price difference between a generic CD drive and it.

      How many generic CD drives do you think the company can expect to sell vs lab machines. You can find at least 1 if not multiple generic CD drives in a given home, office, etc. You are likely to only find the lab machines in hospitals, and probably only a few if more than 1. If the generic CD drive company expected to sell as many drives as the lab company sells machines the price would be astronomical too.

      --
      The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
    2. Re:Why so expensive? by sholden · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Except that a third party company could buy generic CD drives and convert them. I doubt the conversion process would cost 30k euro, if the people who made this one can do it then it can probably be done with standard equipment possibly mostly by manual human work (if demand it so low).

      More likely reasons:

      * The lab machine is more accurate and more importantly calibrated and tested to be so.
      * The lab machine passed a bunch of standards to be approved for use on something a generic CD drive isn't.
      * The lab machine does a bunch of other stuff that the generic CD drive doesn't - using different wavelengths, etc

      It could also simply be that no one noticed you could meet a subset of the requirements for the lab machine with a much cheaper design, and hence no one did so. Of course there may be patent issues that mean no one will do so now anyway...

    3. Re:Why so expensive? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      It's probably not quite that simple. In fact, the article itself mentioned the purpose-built machines are faster (which means they probably inherently cost more and certainly are worth slightly more for that feature). I've got a suspicion they might be more accurate too, which is going to add to the cost, too.

      Not to mention, this still won't be a $50 instrument. A couple hundred dollars by the time you perform low-production rate modifications with the extra sensors, and presumably a premium to cover the cost of development work coming up with this modification and the software necessary to make it work. The article doesn't say if the sensors themselves were similar to normal CD-ROM sensors, or something more capable (expensive).

      And of course if you need certified results, then the device needs to be calibrated periodically, which will also cut down the savings a little bit. You will notice in fact, that the article does not say that the primary benefit is cost, but rather portability.

      But back to your point, remember the days when CD drives cost $1000? I bought a couple off of Newegg when I built my last computer for $35 each! How things change...