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. 2014 Sep 7;14(17):3187-94.
doi: 10.1039/c4lc00010b.

Mobile phones democratize and cultivate next-generation imaging, diagnostics and measurement tools

Aydogan Ozcan  1
Affiliations

Mobile phones democratize and cultivate next-generation imaging, diagnostics and measurement tools

Aydogan Ozcan. Lab Chip. .

Abstract

In this article, I discuss some of the emerging applications and the future opportunities and challenges created by the use of mobile phones and their embedded components for the development of next-generation imaging, sensing, diagnostics and measurement tools. The massive volume of mobile phone users, which has now reached ~7 billion, drives the rapid improvements of the hardware, software and high-end imaging and sensing technologies embedded in our phones, transforming the mobile phone into a cost-effective and yet extremely powerful platform to run, e.g., biomedical tests, and perform scientific measurements that would normally require advanced laboratory instruments. This rapidly evolving and continuing trend will help us transform how medicine, engineering and sciences are practiced and taught globally.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest Statement

A. O. is the co-founder of a start-up company (Holomic LLC) that aims to commercialize computational microscopy and diagnostics tools

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A cartoon that is published in 1926 portrays the future use of mobile phones.–
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
(Left) Mobile phone subscription rates (per 100 people) in the world. (Right) Mobile phone sales in the world as a function of time. Since 2000, approximately 15 billion mobile phones have been sold, which is more than 2 fold larger than the population of the world. Data sources: References and .
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
(a) A comparison of the mega-pixel count of mobile phones with the transistor count in central-processing-units (CPUs) of PCs. This comparison shows that the pixel count of cellphone cameras has been following the Moore’s Law, i.e., doubling almost every 2 years. (b) The processor speed comparison between mobile phones and PCs. (c) Mobile phone network speeds for 1G, 2G, 3G and 4G networks are compared against the average internet speed in the US in 2013. (d) The global average cost of data transmission over cellular networks is reported as a function of time. Data sources: References –.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
(Top) Components of Google Glass. (Bottom) Google Glass based imaging and quantification of immunochromatographic diagnostic tests. For more details, refer to Ref. .
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. [Accessed on 29 December, 2013]; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mobile_phones.
    1. [Accessed on 29 December, 2013]; http://www.simplicissimus.info/uploads/tx_lombkswjournaldb/pdf/1/31/31_3....
    1. International Telecommunication Union. [Accessed on 29 December, 2013];ICT Facts and Figures. 2013 http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/facts/default.aspx.
    1. [Accessed on 29 December, 2013]; www.gartner.com.
    1. [Accessed on 29 December, 2013]; http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-mobile-stats/

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