1:31PM GMT 14 Mar 2013
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| A ball lens was stuck to the iPhone's camera lens using double-sided tape Photo: ISAAC BOGOCH |
Scientists attached a £5 lens to the Apple iPhone using double-sized tape and, with the addition of a torch, were able to use the phone to detect intestinal worm infections in schoolchildren in rural Tanzania.
Pictures of stool samples were taken with the phone and studied for the presence of eggs – the main sign of the parasite.
When the results were compared with a laboratory microscope, the iPhone pictures picked up 70 per cent of the infections.
The study was published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
Dr Isaac Bogoch, specialist in internal medicine at Toronto General Hospital, said he had read about trial of smartphone microscopes in laboratories and wanted to “recreate it in a real world setting”.
"Ultimately we'd like something like this to be a useful diagnostic test. We want to put it in the hands of someone who might be able to use it," he told the BBC.
"Ultimately we'd like something like this to be a useful diagnostic test. We want to put it in the hands of someone who might be able to use it," he told the BBC.
"70 per cent [accuracy] isn't really good enough, we want to be above 80 per cent and we're not quite there yet," he added.
The only reason Dr Bogoch used an iPhone 4S was because it was his own phone.
"The technology is out there. We want to use materials that are affordable and easy to procure," he said.
"You need the ball lens to help with the magnification – but any mobile phone with a decent camera and a zoom function will be sufficient," he added.
The smallest eggs visible using the iPhone were 40-60 micrometres (0.004-0.006cm) in diameter.
"From an egg standpoint that is not tiny but it's not enormous either," Dr Bogoch said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/9930035/Apple-iPhone-converted-for-use-as-a-microscope.html
