Researchers develop Google Glass app for diagnostic test results

A team of researchers from UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science has developed a Google Glass application and a server platform that allow users of the wearable, glasses-like computer to perform instant, wireless diagnostic testing for a variety of diseases and health conditions. With the new technology, Google Glass wearers can use the device's hands-free camera to capture pictures of rapid diagnostic tests (RTDs), small strips on which blood or fluid samples are placed and which change color to indicate the presence of HIV, malaria, prostate cancer or other conditions, according to information published on the school's website. No additional devices are needed for users to upload images to a UCLA-designed server platform and receive accurate analyses that are far more detailed than with the human eye in as little as eight seconds. The new technology could enhance the tracking of dangerous diseases and improve public health monitoring and rapid responses in disaster-relief areas or quarantine zones where conventional medical tools are not available or feasible, the researchers said. "This breakthrough technology takes advantage of gains in both immunochromatographic rapid diagnostic tests and wearable computers," said principal investigator Aydogan Ozcan, the chancellor's professor of electrical engineering and bioengineering at UCLA and associate director of UCLA's California NanoSystems Institute. "This smart app allows for real-time tracking of health conditions and could be quite valuable in epidemiology, mobile health and telemedicine." The research is published online in the journal ACS Nano.　 Ozcan's team also implemented server processes for fast and high-throughput evaluation of test results coming from multiple devices simultaneously. The researchers developed a web portal where users can view test results, maps charting the geographical spread of various diseases and conditions, and the cumulative data from all the tests they have submitted over time. To submit images for test results, Google Glass users take photos of RTD strips or other commonly available in-home tests, then upload the images wirelessly through the device to the UCLA-designed web portal. The technology permits quantified reading of the results to a few-parts-per-billion level of sensitivity eliminating the potential for human error in interpreting results. To test the accuracy and efficiency of the technology, the researchers tested an at-home HI test and a prostate-specific antigen test. The researchers took images of tests under normal, indoor, fluorescent-lit room conditions and submitted more than 400 images of the two tests. The RDT reader and server platform were able to read the images 99.6 percent of the time. In every case in which the technology successfully read the images, it returned accurate and quantified test results, according to the team.