Image-based disease diagnostics using a mobile device

Abstract

A diagnostic system performs disease diagnostic tests using at least an optical property modifying device and a mobile device. A user provides a biological sample from a patient to the optical property modifying device that reacts with a reagent in one or more reaction chambers of the device. The user captures one or more images of the one or more reaction chambers using an optical sensor of the mobile device. The diagnostic system can determine a quality level of the images based on factors such as skew, scale, focusing, shadowing, or white-balancing. Based on an analysis of the captured image, the diagnostic system can determine a test result of a disease diagnostic test for the patient. The diagnostic system may communicate the test result, as well as instructions for the disease diagnostic test, to the user via the mobile device.

1 . An optical property modifying device for a nucleic acid based diagnostic test, the optical property modifying device comprising:
 an interface for receiving a biological sample;   a reaction chamber to perform a reaction between the biological sample and at least an optical property modifying reagent; and   an electronic display configured to present a result of the nucleic acid based diagnostic test based on the reaction between the biological sample and at least the optical property modifying reagent.   
     
     
         2 . The optical property modifying device of  claim 1 , wherein the electronic display is a liquid crystal display, an organic light emitting diode display, or an electronic paper display. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the total time for the diagnostic test is 20 minutes. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the total time for the diagnostic test is between 1 and 60 minutes. 
     
     
         5 . The optical property modifying device of  claim 1 , wherein the electronic display includes one or more light emitting diodes. 
     
     
         6 . A method for determining results for image-based diagnostic tests, the method comprising:
 receiving a set of one or more images of an optical property modifying device for a diagnostic test captured by an optical sensor of a mobile device, the optical property modifying device comprising a reaction chamber configured to perform a reaction between a biological sample and at least one optical property modifying reagent;   determining that an image of the set of one or more images shows a known geometric characteristic or a known color characteristic associated with the optical property modifying device;   determining a test result for the diagnostic test based at least in part on the image; and   providing the test result for presentation by the mobile device.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein a surface of the optical property modifying device includes an electronic display, the method further comprising:
 determining that the electronic display of the optical property modifying device is shown in the image.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein a mobile application interacts with the diagnostic system and the mobile application displays time remaining until the completion of the reaction. 
     
     
         9 . A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:
 receive a set of one or more images of an optical property modifying device for a diagnostic test captured by an optical sensor of a mobile device, the optical property modifying device including a reaction chamber configured to perform a reaction between a biological sample and at least one optical property modifying reagent;   determine that an image of the set of one or more images shows a known geometric characteristic or a known color characteristic associated with the optical property modifying device;   determine a test result for the diagnostic test based at least in part on the image; and   provide the test result for presentation by the mobile device.   
     
     
         10 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 9 , wherein a surface of the optical property modifying device comprises an electronic display, the non-transitory computer readable storage medium having further instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to:
 determine that the electronic display of the optical property modifying device is shown in the image.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 6 ,
 wherein determining the test result is done by the processor of the mobile device or a diagnostic server.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein determining the test result is done by classifying each pixel comprising a reaction chamber within the set of one or more images as falling within one of three color ranges such that: (1) if a plurality of pixels falls within the first color range, a negative diagnosis is determined; (2) if a plurality of pixels falls within the second color range, a positive diagnosis is determined; and (3) if a plurality of pixels falls within the third color range, diagnosis is undetermined. 
     
     
         13 . A method for determining results for image-based diagnostic tests, the method comprising:
 receiving one or more images of an optical property modifying device for a diagnostic test captured by an optical sensor of a mobile device, the optical property modifying device comprising a reaction chamber configured to perform a reaction between a biological sample and at least an optical property modifying reagent, wherein a surface of the optical property modifying device comprises an electronic display and wherein the reaction is an immunoassay or an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA);   determining that the electronic display of the optical property modifying device is shown in the one or more images;   determining that an image of the one or more images shows a known geometric characteristic or a known color characteristic associated with the optical property modifying device;   determining one or more test results for the diagnostic test based at least in part on the image; and   providing the one or more test results for presentation by the mobile device.