Evidence map›Paper›PMID 24824072›Full record

ArticlePloS one2014

Quantitative imaging with a mobile phone microscope.

Arunan Skandarajah, Clay D Reber, Neil A Switz, Daniel A Fletcher

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PloS one, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 63 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
63citing papers in PubMed
13.2field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

63 citing papers in PubMed, 197 citations in OpenAlex.

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  11. Thyroid Cytopathology Cancer Diagnosis from Smartphone Images Using Machine Learning.Modern pathology : an official journal of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, Inc · 2023
    Article
  12. A review on low-cost microscopes for Open Science.Microscopy research and technique · 2022
    Review
  13. Article
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3 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Arunan SkandarajahDepartment of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
Clay D ReberDepartment of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
Neil A SwitzBiophysics Graduate Group, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
Daniel A FletcherDepartment of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America; Biophysics Graduate Group, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America; Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
University of California, Berkeley · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Use of optical imaging for medical and scientific applications requires accurate quantification of features such as object size, color, and brightness. High pixel density cameras available on modern mobile phones have made photography simple and convenient for consumer applications; however, the camera hardware and software that enables this simplicity can present a barrier to accurate quantification of image data. This issue is exacerbated by automated settings, proprietary image processing algorithms, rapid phone evolution, and the diversity of manufacturers. If mobile phone cameras are to live up to their potential to increase access to healthcare in low-resource settings, limitations of mobile phone-based imaging must be fully understood and addressed with procedures that minimize their effects on image quantification. Here we focus on microscopic optical imaging using a custom mobile phone microscope that is compatible with phones from multiple manufacturers. We demonstrate that quantitative microscopy with micron-scale spatial resolution can be carried out with multiple phones and that image linearity, distortion, and color can be corrected as needed. Using all versions of the iPhone and a selection of Android phones released between 2007 and 2012, we show that phones with greater than 5 MP are capable of nearly diffraction-limited resolution over a broad range of magnifications, including those relevant for single cell imaging. We find that automatic focus, exposure, and color gain standard on mobile phones can degrade image resolution and reduce accuracy of color capture if uncorrected, and we devise procedures to avoid these barriers to quantitative imaging. By accommodating the differences between mobile phone cameras and the scientific cameras, mobile phone microscopes can be reliably used to increase access to quantitative imaging for a variety of medical and scientific applications.

Indexed as

Cell PhoneDiagnostic ImagingHumansImage Processing, Computer-AssistedMicroscopyPhotography

Identifiers

PMID24824072
PMCPMC4019540
OpenAlexW2024363851

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.