Your iPhone Could Save Your Life | Teen Ink

Your iPhone Could Save Your Life MAG

March 31, 2019
By Anonymous

This past year Apple phone sales declined as the public passed on purchasing an upgraded model. If I was CEO of Apple, I would concentrate resources towards innovating the camera feature of iPhones and iPads. Smart phones are already used in health-related functions such as checking your blood pressure and sleep patterns. Far more transformative would be to use your phone to give yourself a thermal scan. Digital infrared thermal imaging is used in the screening of breast cancer. The presence of a cancerous growth is detected with the excessive formation of blood vessels and inflammation in the tissue. These appear in the infrared image as areas with a higher temperature. Other types of non-symptomatic cancers would also benefit from preventative thermal screening. In order for a smartphone to function as a thermal camera, it needs an additional lens and hardware that would disable the infrared filter and sensitize it to ultraviolet light with a microbolometer. This technology is already available now-there are smart phones that have thermal cameras that sense heat and measure surface temperature from a distance of 100 feet. My plan would alter the lens so that it has a close range magnification of between 100-400x (depending on the device) and this is the difference between what exists today. This technology for the everyday person would be commercially viable because the demand would be so great and many lives could be saved in the process.


The author's comments:

I am a Freshman at Glenbrook South High School and I have soent the oast three years involved in Science Olympiad competition. My favorite event has been Disease Detectives and last year I placed first in this event at the Illinois State Tournament. Science is my passion and the more I learn, the more courage it gives me to think outside the box. One day, I truly believe we will be able to use technology (like the idea in my essay) to beat diseases and save many lives.


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