Not that the whole using-cellphones-for-disease-detection is
completely fresh, but the latest handset hack for medical purposes is still mighty impressive. UCLA researcher Dr. Aydogan Ozcan has essentially converted a standard cellphone into a portable blood tester of sorts, which is capable of detecting HIV, malaria and various other illnesses. Put as simply as possible, the device works by analyzing blood cells that are placed on an integrated off-the-shelf camera sensor and lit up with a filtered light source. Said light source exposes unique qualities of the cells, and from there, the doc's homegrown software interprets the data and determines what's what. So, has anyone given this guy the main line to
NTT DoCoMo, or what?
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted Dec 21st 2008 12:37PM
And the obvious question is....
o_O i have a w810i... maybe i could do this
Great, I can see it now.
"Hey, uh, wanna come in for a drink?"
"Sure, I just need a few drops of blood before..."
Good design. I can cut my finger for the drop of blood required with that broken glass.
This would be a cool AIDS alert device for those one night stands.
and here is the perfect ringtone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwGP9DAAi4A&feature=related
Pool's closed.
Singles bars will never be the same.
"Is that a blood testing phone in your pocket or are you happy to see me?"
♫ ♪You have AIDS.
Yes, you have AIDS.
I hate to tell you, boy, you have AIDS.
You got the AIDS.
You may have caught it when you stuck that filthy needle in here.
Or maybe all that unprotected sex which we hear. ♫ ♪
pff team america AIDS song is WAY better
i wonder how many engadget articles have had hiv, LED, and SonyErricsson all in the same tagline...
Actually none. Before low ranking me at least look at the article title. I know its easier to low rank me and exit the page compared to scrolling up, reading the title, and coming back down to reply, so I copied the title for you:
Cellphone hacked to analyze blood, detect diseases on the spot
Oh Shit!
@ Chase
He said TAG LINE.
Before low ranking me at least look at the article tags. I know its easier to low rank me and exit the page compared to scrolling up, reading the tags, and coming back down to reply, so I copied the tags for you:
aids, blood, blood tester, BloodTester, disease, hiv, LED, medical, science, se, sony ericsson, SonyEricsson, UCLA
J.C. wins. :)
For your average everyday Don Juan in some of us, be wary!
They're on to us now...
One small step closer to the medical tricorder.
I'm sure it won't be a problem for you.
(just wanted to get that out of the way)
Why did you even put yourself on the spot like that?
Nice... I hope the good doctor gets a Noble Price for Peace because there will be lots of peace making after this device is given to every love making human machine out there.
All it needs is the ability to detect if she is pregnant.
madness?
THIS IS ENGADGET !!!!
@ Rekit:
Win!
The internets, they are yours.
I wonder how long it will be until this is written as a new iPhone app?
It's probably already out on android along with that barcode scanner.
Shhh...this is engadget. We do not discuss that other phone.
What? We cannot discuss that?
This is madness!
It will be released in two years, and Apple will call it a "revolutionary, exclusive" feature.
Does it blend?
No but for real.. I smell the next big iPhone app!
I just finished taking a class with Dr. Ozcan, he REALLY knows his stuff. Cool guy too. Nice to see he made it to Engadget, he's doing a lot of good research. A little background from UCLA's website:
"Aydogan Ozcan received his Ph.D. degree at Stanford University Electrical Engineering Department in 2005. After a short post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford University, he was appointed as a Junior Faculty Member at the rank of Instructor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Ozcan joined UCLA in the summer of 2007, where he is currently an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering. Dr. Ozcan holds 7 issued and 9 pending US patents for his inventions in nanoscopy, wide-field imaging, nonlinear optics, fiber optics, and optical coherence tomography. He is also the co-author of more than 60 peer reviewed research articles in major scientific journals and conferences. Dr. Ozcan is a member of IEEE, LEOS and OSA."
Seriously though... any chance this'll make it on Instructables?
I am crossing my fingers for this
"I said blood tester stupid!Get your urine off my phone NOW!"
You're in high school:
"Hey can I borrow you phone to call my mo-"
"Sorry... testing if I have HIV!"
No, I'm not in high school.
sorry, i feel like a dumbass...
i knew the w810i was one of the most amazing phones ever, this just solidifies it
In the firefox tab this article sits in, the title is cut off after the l in analyze. Just saying.
There is no 'I' in analyze.
Just Saying
How useful this would be in a country lacking the funds for medical supplies! Great for doctor visits to remote areas.
Unless it was confiscated when you were in the airport for looking like some sort of weapon...
If anyone can, Ozcan!
/lame
I see what you did there.
unlimited calls and text $99, unlimited data $50, unlimited medical testing including std's priceless.
All we need now is a function that lets you cure any diseases it detects.
"HIV detected...scanning blood type...PING!"
It connects to a medical server, builds a retrovirus from scratch using programmable nanotech, and injects it. A little meter tells you it will soon need topping up with base compound (the stuff that it builds cures from)...so you go to the store and pick up a nano-capsule refill that slots right into your phone. The meter now reads full, and you're ready to face the world and any number of infectious diseases and bacteria! Food poisoning? Accidental overdose? Cancer? No problem.
On store shelves in 2030.
Does it check for STD too ???
Thanks for the interesting story but i think you may be missing some of the important innovation here. The previous article (about the LG Diabetic Testing Mobile) is a "disease control" or "disease monitoring" device. This innovation is a "disease detection" and so has the potential for bringing awareness of illness to people who are unaware and not currently being treated. Early detection and diagnosis is the future of medicine which will be more focused on preventation and patient information, eg. instead of patients suffering the pain and long term debilitating effects of heart attacks or strokes or developing large cancers, a simple and regular blood analysis will detect early signs and encourage treatment or behaviour change to help us avoid developing conditions and their associated diesease and surgical interventions.
If they are not already in touch i think it might be helpful for Dr Ozcan to get in touch with the R&D units of the leading mobile handset technology/manufacturers who are already looking at this important area:
Nokia: http://research.nokia.com/aboutus/index.html
Samsung: http://www.sait.samsung.com/eng/research/bio/e_uhealth.jsp
Qualcomm: www.qualcomm.com/innovation/stories/lifecomm.html
Being based in California he may also find the Wireless LifeScience Alliance helpful.... www.wirelesslifesciences.org
I'd add detailed billing to my plan just for shits and giggles! But i'm quite sure we'd need a data plan for this...