Mobile phones democratize and cultivate next-generation imaging, diagnostics and measurement tools

In this article, I discuss some of the emerging applications and the future opportunities and challenges created by the use of mobile phones and their embedded components for the development of next-generation imaging, sensing, diagnostics and measurement tools. The massive volume of mobile phone users, which has now reached ~7 billion, drives the rapid improvements of the hardware, software and high-end imaging and sensing technologies embedded in our phones, transforming the mobile phone into a cost-effective and yet extremely powerful platform to run, e.g., biomedical tests, and perform scientific measurements that would normally require advanced laboratory instruments. This rapidly evolving and continuing trend will help us transform how medicine, engineering and sciences are practiced and taught globally.