The Department of Instrumentation and Applied Physics at Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has transformed a simple smart phone into a powerful microscope by replacing the camera with high resolution optics of a microscope.
With appropriate software to analyse the images seen from the microscope, the smart phone reinvents itself as a reliable malaria detection device, as well.
Dr Sai Siva Gorthi, from the department of Instrumental and Applied Physics, who had come up with this new invention said that the diagnostics for deadly diseases like malaria involve a skilled technician to draw blood from a patient and a pathologist to determine the stage of infection if any. The elimination of the multiple stages of diagnosis replaced by a hand held instrument would be a fairy tale come true.
