Washington : MIT scientists have created a spectrometer small enough to fit inside a smartphone camera that could enable the devices to diagnose diseases, especially skin conditions, or detect environmental pollutants, says PTI.
Spectrometers measure the properties of light and are widely used in physical, chemical, and biological research. These devices are usually too large to be portable, but Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists have created spectrometers small enough to fit inside a smartphone camera, using tiny semiconductor nanoparticles called quantum dots.
“Such devices could be used to diagnose diseases, especially skin conditions, or to detect environmental pollutants and food conditions,” said Jie Bao, a former MIT postdoc and the lead author of a paper describing the quantum dot spectrometers in the journal Nature.
