3,271 research outputs found

    Smartphone-based food diagnostic technologies: A review

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    A new generation of mobile sensing approaches offers significant advantages over traditional platforms in terms of test speed, control, low cost, ease-of-operation, and data management, and requires minimal equipment and user involvement. The marriage of novel sensing technologies with cellphones enables the development of powerful lab-on-smartphone platforms for many important applications including medical diagnosis, environmental monitoring, and food safety analysis. This paper reviews the recent advancements and developments in the field of smartphone-based food diagnostic technologies, with an emphasis on custom modules to enhance smartphone sensing capabilities. These devices typically comprise multiple components such as detectors, sample processors, disposable chips, batteries and software, which are integrated with a commercial smartphone. One of the most important aspects of developing these systems is the integration of these components onto a compact and lightweight platform that requires minimal power. To date, researchers have demonstrated several promising approaches employing various sensing techniques and device configurations. We aim to provide a systematic classification according to the detection strategy, providing a critical discussion of strengths and weaknesses. We have also extended the analysis to the food scanning devices that are increasingly populating the Internet of Things (IoT) market, demonstrating how this field is indeed promising, as the research outputs are quickly capitalized on new start-up companies

    The future of Earth observation in hydrology

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    In just the past 5 years, the field of Earth observation has progressed beyond the offerings of conventional space-agency-based platforms to include a plethora of sensing opportunities afforded by CubeSats, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and smartphone technologies that are being embraced by both for-profit companies and individual researchers. Over the previous decades, space agency efforts have brought forth well-known and immensely useful satellites such as the Landsat series and the Gravity Research and Climate Experiment (GRACE) system, with costs typically of the order of 1 billion dollars per satellite and with concept-to-launch timelines of the order of 2 decades (for new missions). More recently, the proliferation of smart-phones has helped to miniaturize sensors and energy requirements, facilitating advances in the use of CubeSats that can be launched by the dozens, while providing ultra-high (3-5 m) resolution sensing of the Earth on a daily basis. Start-up companies that did not exist a decade ago now operate more satellites in orbit than any space agency, and at costs that are a mere fraction of traditional satellite missions. With these advances come new space-borne measurements, such as real-time high-definition video for tracking air pollution, storm-cell development, flood propagation, precipitation monitoring, or even for constructing digital surfaces using structure-from-motion techniques. Closer to the surface, measurements from small unmanned drones and tethered balloons have mapped snow depths, floods, and estimated evaporation at sub-metre resolutions, pushing back on spatio-temporal constraints and delivering new process insights. At ground level, precipitation has been measured using signal attenuation between antennae mounted on cell phone towers, while the proliferation of mobile devices has enabled citizen scientists to catalogue photos of environmental conditions, estimate daily average temperatures from battery state, and sense other hydrologically important variables such as channel depths using commercially available wireless devices. Global internet access is being pursued via high-altitude balloons, solar planes, and hundreds of planned satellite launches, providing a means to exploit the "internet of things" as an entirely new measurement domain. Such global access will enable real-time collection of data from billions of smartphones or from remote research platforms. This future will produce petabytes of data that can only be accessed via cloud storage and will require new analytical approaches to interpret. The extent to which today's hydrologic models can usefully ingest such massive data volumes is unclear. Nor is it clear whether this deluge of data will be usefully exploited, either because the measurements are superfluous, inconsistent, not accurate enough, or simply because we lack the capacity to process and analyse them. What is apparent is that the tools and techniques afforded by this array of novel and game-changing sensing platforms present our community with a unique opportunity to develop new insights that advance fundamental aspects of the hydrological sciences. To accomplish this will require more than just an application of the technology: in some cases, it will demand a radical rethink on how we utilize and exploit these new observing systems

    Measurement Tools of Pediatric Nutrition and Health Suitable or Adaptable for Low- and Middle-Income Countries in Field Research Settings

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    Background: Micronutrient status, body composition, gastrointestinal (GI) functioning, and neurological functioning are important facets of pediatric nutrition and health. When studied in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), information about these elements is usually obtained via standardized surveys and traditional anthropometry. While convenient, these evaluations offer limited information that may be prone to error and bias. However, a variety of underutilized objective measurement tools exist which can promote a more objective, comprehensive, and deeper understanding of these aspects of pediatric nutrition and health in LMIC. Objective: Identify field-friendly, relatively low-cost, and portable tools that provide objective measurements of micronutrient status, body composition, GI functioning, and neurological functioning in young children. Methods: A narrative review of the literature was conducted to assess the state-of-the-art field-friendly research tools targeting micronutrient status, body composition, GI functioning, and neurological functioning in children in LMIC. Results: A number of field-friendly tools addressing the domains of micronutrient status, GI health, body composition, and neurological functioning were identified. While many tools remain to be fully validated, these tools have yet to be used to their full potential in field-based pediatric nutrition and health research in LMICs. Conclusions: More robust, field-friendly assessment methods will help to refine knowledge on the state of pediatric health of vulnerable children in LMIC. Such awareness could contribute to the design of interventions, programs and policies, and further research

    Ad-Hoc Networks as an Enabler of Brain Spectroscopy

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    Smart scientific instruments based on smartphones: a brief review

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    Smartphone has gone beyond a communication hub to be a measurement device itself, thanks to various built-in sensors. This article reviewed achievements in transforming ubiquitous smartphones into cost-effective scientific instruments for educational laboratories, environmental studies, point-of-care diagnostics, home-based health monitoring, and rehabilitation. Magnetic fields were precisely measured by built-in magnetometers, leading to demonstrations for engineering and medical applications. The smartphone-based joint-angle measurement was a viable alternative to traditional goniometers. Characterizations of optical signals captured by cameras led to portable spectrophotometers and colorimeters for both educational and practical uses. Interestingly, smartphones became a platform for high-resolution microscopes and fluorescence microscopes were developed with add-on components. These smart instruments become even more attractive options in the pandemic period with limited facility and laboratory access

    Emerging Optical Techniques for Detection of Oral, Cervical and Anal Cancer in Low-Resource Settings

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    Cancers of the oral and anogenital regions are a growing global health problem that disproportionately impact women and men living in developing countries. The high death rate in developing countries is largely due to the fact that these countries do not have the appropriate medical infrastructure and resources to support the organized screening and diagnostic programs that are available in the developed world. Emerging optical diagnostics techniques, such as optical spectroscopy, reflectance imaging, and fluorescence imaging, are noninvasive techniques that are sensitive to multiple cancer biomarkers and have shown the potential as a cost–effective and fast tool for diagnosis of early precancerous changes in the cervix, oral cavity and anus. This paper provides a review of current strategies for prevention, screening and diagnostic tests of oral, cervical and anal cancers and development in optical diagnostic techniques that could potentially be used to improve current practice in resource–limited settings

    Image Processing for Machine Vision Applications

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