You can now conduct ultrasounds with your smartphone

Engineers have recently created a new device that can perform an ultrasound with the help of a smartphone using artificial intelligence (AI).

A startup, called Butterfly Network, unveiled the ultrasound device that has been named the iQ. The iQ is a lab-on-a-chip medical imaging tool that is attached to an iPhone’s lighting jack. Through the device’s machine learning algorithm, the user can conduct the ultrasound.

To make the iQ work, the engineers swapped the compressed charged crystals used by normal ultrasounds by a capacitive micromachine ultrasound transducers (CMUTs) – rows of extremely small drums vibrating at a range of frequencies when a current passes through them. The technology was then combined with algorithms used for collecting data of numerous telescopes to picture the outer space. Further, the CMUT’s are finally bonded on a semiconductor layer with wiring that convert sounds into images, according to Futurism.

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The device has been permitted to be used for imaging various applications such as heart scans for adults and children, pregnancy exams, urinary tract checks, and musculo-skeletal tests. However, even though the images are not as clear as those produced from MRI or CT scans, the device can still prove to be handy.

According to Butterfly’s chief medical officer John Martin, who used the device to detect a growing cancer under his own throat, this invention is a step closer to self-directed health monitoring. “Thermometers once lived only inside hospitals. And blood pressure cuffs, and defibrillators,” he told Wired.

Currently, the device is restricted to be preordered by licensed healthcare providers only. Martin hopes the iQ can be available for all. “The sooner we can put smart technologies in the hands of people at home, the sooner the right diagnosis can be made. I’ve yet to find a disease state where earlier detection didn’t lead to better outcomes. And I’m living proof of that.”