Design of a 3D printed smartphone microscopic system with enhanced imaging ability for biomedical applications

Abstract

Portable, low-cost smartphone platform microscopic systems have emerged as a potential tool for imaging of various micron and submicron scale particles in recent years (Ozcan; Pirnstill and Coté; Breslauer et al.; Zhu et al.). In most of the reported works, it involves either the use of sophisticated optical set-ups along with a high-end computational tool for postprocessing of the captured images, or it requires a highend configured smartphone to obtain enhanced imaging of the sample. Present work reports the working of a low-cost, field-portable 520× optical microscope using a smartphone. The proposed smartphone microscopic system has been designed by attaching a 3D printed compact optical set-up to the rear camera of a regular smartphone. By using cloud-based services, an image processing algorithm has been developed which can be accessed anytime through a mobile broadband network. Using this facility, the quality of the captured images can be further enhanced, thus obviating the need for dedicated computational tools for postprocessing of the images. With the designed microscopic system, an optical resolution ß2 µm has been obtained. Upon postprocessing, the resolution of the captured images can be improved further. It is envisioned that with properly designed optical set-up in 3D printer and by developing an image processing application in the cloud, it is possible to obtain a low-cost, user-friendly, field-portable optical microscope on a regular smartphone that performs at par with that of a laboratory-grade microscope.

PUMA – An open‐source 3D‐printed direct vision microscope with augmented reality and spatial light modulator functions

“…(which uses a flexing, if not flexure, focus system) or Orth et al 26 . are, by definition, not used for direct vision and some also rely on internet connectivity for image processing 6 which limits field portability to some remote locations. The models referred to in the above publications also lack standard slide screening XY controls.…”

“…Many designs for a 3D printed research‐grade microscope have been proposed in recent times, some as complete microscopes, 3,4 others for specific modalities such as fluorescence 5 or as smartphone camera attachments (for example 6 ).…”

“…This in turn results in a trade‐off between portability, image size, field of view, clarity and cost for those who only need to make instant observations as opposed to recordings. For example, a smartphone may be used as all‐in‐one computer, camera and display device – which is good for portability – but this in‐turn limits the user to viewing a lower resolution image on a small screen, with a variable degree of distortion 6 . However, viewing a large, clear, wide‐field image with spatial, spectral and radiometric resolution and contrast limited only by the observer's vision cannot be achieved with a camera microscope because there will always be additional distortions and restrictions of contrast, spatial and colour resolution due to the the analogue‐to‐digital and digital‐to‐analogue conversions required and the limited gamut responses of both camera and monitor.…”

Laboratory studies of suspended particle volume concentration in atmosphere using a smartphone

“…Development of this method is possible by using an active test object with self-luminous strokes and using a smartphone camera. Today, smartphones are used as measuring devices in various fields, such as medicine [9,10,11], construction [12].…”

Turbidimetric analysis of growth kinetics of bacteria in the laboratory environment using smartphone

“…With the ever‐improving features both in hardware and software, the smartphone has emerged as a promising alternative platform for the development of different sensing and imaging tools in recent years . By integrating simple, compact optical setup to the rear camera or the ambient light sensor (ALS), the phone can be converted into a reliable sensing or imaging system .…”