Smartphone to spot harmful bacteria

GS PAPER III: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.

Context: Researchers have developed a method that uses smartphone-derived images to visually identify bacteria on the skin and in the mouth.

• Smartphone-enabled snapshot multispectral autofluorescence imaging and its application for bacteria assessments in skin and oral cavity will be a cost-effective, easy tool that people could use to learn about bacteria on skin and in the oral cavity.
• Porphyrin, is a by-product of bacterial growth and metabolism.
• While the LED lights ‘excite’ porphyrins, causing them to emit a red fluorescent signal that the smartphone camera can pick up, proteins or oily molecules produced by human bodies, as well as skin, teeth and gums, will not glow red under LED.
• Using this method, the team was able to generate a “pseudo-multispectral” image consisting of 15 different sections of the visible light spectrum, rather than the three in the original RGB (red, green, and blue) smartphone-derived image.
• The pseudo-multispectral images make it possible to clearly see porphyrin clusters on the skin and in the mouth.

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/using-smartphone-to-spot-potentially-harmful-bacteria/article34929691.ece?homepage=true