Abstract
Current-age smartphones are known for their wide array of functionality and are now being utilized in the field of healthcare and medicine due to their proven capabilities as smartphone imaging devices (SIDs). Recent technical advancements enabled the integration of special add-on lenses with smartphones to transform them into SIDs. With the rising demand for efficient point-of-care (PoC) devices for better diagnostic applications, SIDs will be a one-stop solution. Additionally, portability, user-friendliness and low-cost make it accessible for all even at remote locations. Furthermore, improvements in resolution, magnification and field-of-view (FOV) have attracted the scientific community to use SIDs in various biomedical applications such as disease diagnosis, food quality control and pathogen detection. SIDs can be arranged in various combinational setups by using different illumination sources and optics to achieve suitable contrast and visibility of the specimen under study. This Commentary illustrates the various illumination sources used in SID and also spotlights their design and applications.
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Data availability
Datasets used in this work will be available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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The authors extend thanks to the Manipal School of Life Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India for providing infrastructure and laboratory facilities to conduct the research.
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This work was supported by the Indian Council of Medical Research, grant number ITR/Ad-hoc/43/2020-21, ID No. 2020-3286; the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, India, grant number GST/DST/TWN/P-95/2021; and the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Government of India, India, project number-SERB/MTR/2020/000058.
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Gagan Raju and Aashrayi Ranjan planned and designed the concept and wrote the manuscript. Soumyabrata Banik and Ashmini Poddar designed the figures and illustrations. Gagan Raju, Aashrayi Ranjan and Ashmini Poddar compiled the data for the study. Vishwanath Managuli and Nirmal Mazumder supervised the study.
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Raju, G., Ranjan, A., Banik, S. et al. A commentary on the development and use of smartphone imaging devices. Biophys Rev 16, 151–163 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12551-023-01175-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12551-023-01175-1