Invention turns cell phone into mobile medical lab

According to CNN, a device may be available in the near future that could turn a cell phone into a mobile medical lab -- and change the way doctors treat patients in rural areas far from hospitals.

Professor Aydogan Ozcan of UCLA has taken a typical Sony Ericsson phone, and by adding a few off-the-shelf parts that cost less than $50, he can get it to produce a remarkable image that shows the thousands of cells in a small fluid sample such as human blood.

"It is a new way of doing images of cells and bacteria," said Ozcan, an assistant professor in UCLA's electrical engineering department. While other small imaging systems use bulky optics, his group's invention offers "true miniaturization of a laboratory" because there are no lenses and the results are quick and accurate, he said.

[via Med Gagdet]

emily | 5:54 PM | Technology |
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