Mobile Medical Lab — the $10 Phone Microscope

kkleiner writes "Aydogan Ozcan of UCLA has developed a microscope attachment for a cell phone – turning the device into a sort of mobile medical lab. It's both lightweight (~38g or 1.5 oz) and cheap (parts cost around $10). The cellphone microscope can analyze blood and saliva samples for microparticles, red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and water borne parasites. Ozcan and his team have recently won three prestigious awards for the device: a Grand Challenges award from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (worth $100,000), the National Geographic Emerging Explorer award (worth $10,000), and the CAREER award from the National Science Foundation ($400,000). With these funds, Ozcan plans on starting case studies in Africa to see how the microscope can help revolutionize global medicine."

Comments

Re:tricorder

[JustinRLynn]

Do both! Get a Dr Mario UI for it.

Ozcan's RAZR

[TempeNerd]

When given the choice between several phone microscopes,
whichever phone makes the simplest microscope is the one to use.

*twitch*

[girlintraining]

Ozcan plans on starting case studies in Africa to see how the microscope can help revolutionize global medicine.

I think it already has, dude.

Damaging to education

[liak12345]

Children in developing worlds will get the completely wrong picture about cellular biology.

Can it detect semen stains in carpeting?

[elrous0]

Because I'm not buying it unless it does.