Intelligent method for dipstick urinalysis using smartphone camera

Abstract

This paper introduces an intelligent method for helping people to maintain their healthy by doing a self urinalysis utilising a smartphone camera. A color sensing method using a smartphone camera is designed to determine the value of a reagent strip in a urinalysis dipstick. In the dipstick urinalysis, a color change in each reagent strip is examined. This color change is a result of the reaction of dipstick to the chemical contents of urine including pH, Protein, Glucose, Ketones, Leucocyte, Nitrite, Bilirubine, and Urobilinogen. Performing disptick urinalysis can be done in almost any places even on the very remote area where medical laboratory cannot be found, and it is much easier and cheaper than medical lab visit. The proposed intelligent method includes a framework for color acquisition using a smartphone camera which covers the color management system, color correction, color matching, and quantification. The usage of RGB and CIELAB color space is discussed in the color management part. An automated color constancy approach is introduced to provide a better color correction, and a step-wise linear interpolation is introduced to better estimate the urinalysis value. To implement this proposed method, a closed acquisition box does not required. Disptick capturing can be done directly with a smartphone camera in almost any normal lighting condition. © 2014 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.