Korean scientists reckon that the capacitive touchscreens on our phones and tablets could help diagnose diseases from what's floating around in your mouth. It works through the screen's ability to detect minute capacitive differences in disease-carrying liquids placed on its surface. Experiments by Hyun Gyu Park and Byoung Yeon Won at the Korea Advanced Institute for Science and Technology in Daejeon managed to detect chlamydia microbes in three different concentrations. Once again, the iPhone acted as medical chief, although the setup isn't yet able to distinguish between different bugs. There are also teething troubles with the touchscreen, as capacitive read-outs can be affected by moisture and sweat that are on the screen alongside your 'sample.' One solution to this would be to create a disposable film that attaches to the iPhone surface. There's a second reason for this, as Park diplomatically puts it: "Nobody wants direct application of bio-samples onto their phone." Let's hope Siri doesn't take it personally.
[Sneezing photo via Shutterstock]
Get diagnosed by spitting on an iPhone, social graces terminal originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Nov 2011 19:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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