TRI Analyzer - Turns Your Smartphone into a Diagnostic Equipment

Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed technology that enables a smartphone to perform lab-grade medical diagnostic tests that typically require large, expensive instruments. Costing only $550, the spectral Transmission Reflectance Intensity (TRI) Analyzer from Bioengineering and Electrical & Computer Engineering Professor "Brian Cunningham’s lab" attaches to a smartphone and analyzes patient blood, urine, or saliva samples as reliably as clinic-based instruments that cost thousands of dollars.

The device attaches to a smartphone and analyzes patient blood, urine, or saliva samples as reliably as clinic-based instruments that cost thousands of dollars.

Our TRI Analyzer is like the Swiss Army knife of biosensing," said Cunningham. "It's capable of performing the three most common types of tests in medical diagnostics, so in practice, thousands of already developed tests could be adapted to it."

The TRI Analyzer operates by converting the smartphone camera into a high-performance spectrometer. Specifically, the analyzer illuminates a sample fluid with the phone's internal white LED flash or with an inexpensive external green laser diode.



The light from the sample is collected in an optical fiber and guided through a diffraction grating into the phone's rear-facing internal camera. These optical components are all arranged within a 3D-printed plastic cradle.



Using TRI Multiple analyses can be carried out in quick succession, as the microfluidic cartridge can be loaded up with several samples at once. This ability to analyze multiple samples quickly and reliably makes the Analyzer suitable for patients who lack convenient access to a clinic or hospital with diagnostic test facilities or for patients with urgent health situations requiring rapid results.

Our Analyzer can scan many tests in a sequence by swiping the cartridge past the readout head, in a similar manner to the way magnetic strip credit cards are swiped,".

In addition to its applications in health diagnostics, Cunningham said the TRI Analyzer can also be applied to point of use applications that include animal health, environmental monitoring, drug testing, manufacturing quality control, and food safety. The patented technology is available for license.

What do you think about this, Would any of you buy one? Share your thoughts in the reply section!

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