Far From a Lab? Turn a Cellphone Into a Microscope

NY Times ^ | November 7, 2009 | ANNE EISENBERG

[skinkinthegrass]

Those Israelis... They have everything. :)
God bless em.

He has.

[neverdem]

its the digital camera that does the trick.?

I got that impression. I don't have a cell phone, so I have no first hand experience other than taking on someone else's cell phones.

The wireless and audio features of what makes a cell phone a cell phone don't have much to do with this, or am I missing something?

I had the impression that the wireless ability can transmit the images. Maybe _Jim could clarify any misconceptions.

[ColdSteelTalon]

Ditto :)

[spunkets]

They're simply taking a pic of a flat surface with monochromatic light, so the image is a hologram. They're not actually looking at images of the cells, just the phase/interference info recorded in the camera's sensor array from combined reflections unique to that "surface finish". The surface is composed of a monolayer of ~2μm high discs with a diameter of ~8μm for red blood cells and ~2μm larger for white cells. It may someday provide for RBC and WBC counts/densities.

[TexasRepublic]

I’ve fooled around with the optics required to see really small things, my experience is that you need at least a couple hundred dollars worth of glass to make this happen. The lens on a cell phone isn’t high enough quality to discern the details required for this type of work.

Ever hear of a "simple" microscope? The first microscope ever invented used a polished glass bead as the lens and produced sharp images at several hundred magnifications, although the image was dim due to a small aperature. The sample to be viewed had to nearly touch the lens, due to the short focal length. Today it would be a simple matter to install such a spheric lens above the sensor of a cell phone. A glass microsocpe slide could be laid directly onto the cell phone if the lens was recessed just a bit.

[_Jim]

They're not actually looking at images of the cells

The result, AFAIAC is an image; reiterating, capturing the 'data' off the 2-D array results in 'an image'; imagery. Not to be construed with anything else, being very generic in application here since I know sqat about the size or nature of what they're trying to capture or characterize. I would spend more time on the subject, but more pressing matters present themselves.

[_Jim]

I had the impression that the wireless ability can transmit the images.

That's my take also; they got themselves a 'twofer' with this creation!

[spunkets]

Re: They're not actually looking at images of the cells,...

"The result, AFAIAC is an image; reiterating, capturing the 'data' off the 2-D array results in 'an image'; imagery.

The key element you left out is that I said the pic's a hologram. A hologram is a holographic image, but those images contain no recognizable rendering of blood cells discernable with the unaided eye, or with a microscope for that matter. They look like blank images to the unaided eye. Those holograms can be mathematically scaled up, then converted to magnified images of the cells.