The Need

Colorimetric tests and remote image analysis are used in a wide range of industrial and medical applications. Digital image-based measurements made with smartphones are a promising platform to quantify colors at low cost, but suffer from inconsistency and errors caused by lens quality, sensor differences, and unpredictable environmental lighting. This can hinder the performance of vital assays that rely on accurate color reading. There is a need for a process that can overcome these challenges.

The Technology

Dr. Karen Dannemiller's lab has developed a smartphone-based solution that couples a designated color reference board with a novel color correction algorithm to achieve accurate and absolute color measurements. A novel correction algorithm is implemented as a “human-in-the-loop” smartphone application, where users are guided by an augmented reality scheme with a marker tracking module to take images at an optimal angle.

Commercial Applications

This sampling technology benefits industries concerned with viral disease monitoring and mitigation, including:

• Medical diagnosis: Colorimetric enzyme, pH, and glucose assays, as well as remote skin lesion image analysis.
• Agricultural monitoring: Remote crop health monitoring, soil test kits.
• Food safety: Detect color changes caused by spoilage or contamination.
• Environmental monitoring: Air and water test kits (arsenic, formaldehyde, chlorine).

Benefits/Advantages

This technology offers several compelling benefits and advantages:

• Accurate and absolute: can reduce up to 90% color variance for images collected under different lighting conditions. Performs 200% better at reading pH papers compared to human reading.
• Portability: Leverages existing phone technology.
• Device independent: Controls for differences in lens quality and sensor technology.
• Cost-Effectiveness: Costs less than dedicated equipment.
• Real-Time Analysis: It allows for on-site color analysis compared to lab procedures.

PCT filed