Using an iPhone to detect ear infections
It looks like researchers at Georgia Tech and Emory University have taken blogger Erica Sadun's "Look at your own ear" post from December 2011 to a new level. They've developed an iPhone accessory they call the Remotoscope to turn an iPhone into an otoscope -- that thing doctors usually put into your ear to peer inside.
The Remotoscope puts a scope over the lens and flash on an iPhone making it easy to take pictures of a child's ear canal, while an app magnifies the image and sends it to a pediatrician. The idea is that parents could take images daily so that the pediatrician could monitor the infection, hopefully reducing the need to prescribe antibiotics.
Remotoscope is undergoing clinical trials at this time, with the university researchers hoping to publish their results by year-end. Unfortunately for parents everywhere, there's no hint at when the handy accessory may hit the market.
