Researchers at Agharkar Research Institute have developed a mobile app based system, known as 'Hb calculator' for measuring blood haemoglobin. This is an android smartphone app that can be used in remote rural areas. The accuracy of the smartphone based app has been tested and validate through different analysis.
Agharkar Research Institute is an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology.
The app will particularly be useful in resource-limited conditions for rapid, accurate, highly sensitive and specific for the assessment of anaemia, a condition where the level of haemoglobin in a human body is lesser than normal.
The most common cause of anaemia is shortage of iron in the body, which subsequently affects the formation of haemoglobin. Nutritional deficiency of iron is associated with developmental delay, impaired behaviour, diminished intellectual performance and decreased resistance to infection.
Disorders related to iron deficiency and disturbances in iron resorption, are being increasingly reported today. Hence determination of haemoglobin is one of the most frequently performed analyses in clinical diagnostic procedures.
This smartphone based app will bridge the gap of ease-to-use that was a constraint in other related apps for which those in remote areas were unable to use them.
The process consists of addition of reagent to the plate, followed by the addition of blood sample. The formation of colour is captured using a camera phone. On clicking the Hb calculator app icon, a splash screen is launched. Initially, an image of the container with a blank solution is captured and set as the calibration image. After this, an image of the container with sample solution is captured and analyzed. The app automatically calculates the Hb value (g/dL) for the respective sample, and the result is displayed on the screen.
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