Well-Designed Smartphone-Based Imaging Biosensor

Abstract

With the development of hardware and software for smartphones, more and more well-designed smartphone-based imaging biosensors have been created and broadly applied in point-of-care testing (POCT). Imaging biosensors can get clear images through the high pixel density of smartphones’ camera systems. And smartphones also provide a chance for imaging processing thanks to smartphones' central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs). Different approaches have extensively explored smartphone-based imaging biosensors. The commonly used imaging methods are generally implemented by the bright field with the light source or by fluorescence with a fluorescence microscope. Smartphones have enabled the widespread application of imaging-based methods in clinical chemistry, environmental monitoring,  flow cytometry, food analysis, drug screening, and medical diagnostics. In detail, this article discusses various imaging biosensors and specific applications of smartphone-based imaging biosensors for bright-field imaging and fluorescence bioimaging. Meanwhile, the opportunities and challenges of smartphone-based imaging biosensors are also analyzed here.