Turning Smartphones into Lab-Grade Microscopes

Uncommon Sense Lab

For Professor Alexander Adams, founding director of Georgia Tech’s Uncommon Sense Lab located in TSRB, measuring the invisible is a lifelong fascination. Originally from North Carolina, Adams began his career in music, fascinated by how sound could be manipulated through analog hardware and digital signal processing. That curiosity eventually pulled him into engineering, where he discovered human-computer interaction and sensing systems. Today, his lab focuses on pushing the boundaries of what is possible with everyday devices, particularly in the field of healthcare.

His latest paper, "Application of Microscopic Smartphone Attachment for Remote Preoperative Lab Testing," co-authored with Ph.D. researcher Kefan Song, does precisely that. The work introduces a smartphone-based microscope designed to perform critical pre-surgical laboratory tests, such as blood cell counts, without requiring a hospital-grade laboratory.

"Many individuals seeking high-quality medical care travel significant distances to reach advanced medical facilities," the authors write. Scheduling preoperative exams becomes particularly challenging because these tests are typically conducted shortly before surgery. Backlogs at testing facilities and delays in obtaining test results have been shown to contribute to the postponement of elective surgeries."

The team’s prototype—dubbed the "m-phone”—adapts easily to both Android and iPhone devices. It utilizes inexpensive optics, combined with a custom app and image processing algorithm, to automatically count cells from a simple blood smear. In tests, the system achieved a precision of 86% and recall of over 93%, with the authors noting a strong correlation (R² = 0.89) between algorithmic and manual counts.

Prototype of m-phone adapted to an iPhone 14 Pro Max. The ball lens next to the phone flashlight is hidden from view.

"The device’s portability, ease of use, and rapid processing time position it as a promising alternative to traditional lab tests," the paper states. This innovation could streamline the preoperative process, enabling more efficient scheduling and reducing the overall time and resources spent on preoperative assessments.

What makes the work stand out is its emphasis on accessibility. The paper notes, "The development of POC (point-of-care) devices has benefited from the fast advancement and widespread adoption of smartphone technologies.” This is especially important in rural areas, as although access to healthcare facilities and laboratories is limited, their smartphone ownership rate is comparable to that of urban areas, at approximately 80%.

For Adams, that’s the point: designing technologies that not only work but also meet people where they are. "Healthcare needs tools like this—scalable, accessible, and inexpensive," Adams says. “If you can leverage the smartphone everyone already carries, you’re not just improving healthcare, you’re expanding access to it.”

The commercial potential is equally compelling. The system could reduce hospital backlogs, lower healthcare costs, and open new markets in remote diagnostics. Future plans include integrating microfluidic channels for direct sample analysis and expanding the algorithm’s capabilities to identify a wider range of cell types. Although still a prototype, Adams and Song believe the device could evolve into a powerful tool for both healthcare providers and patients. As their paper concludes: By offering a comprehensive and easy-to-use platform, the device significantly reduces the financial and logistical burdens associated with clinical diagnostics, particularly in remote and underserved areas.