Nice TED talk. I actually have a number of the journal articles that are outlined in this video. :-) I also found a neat way to hack Epson printer to turn it into a wax printer like they talked about in the video. There's a lot of work being done with cell phones and paper-based test devices.
Edit: Unfortunately the presenter makes paper-based diagnostic tools out to be easier to make than they actually are. Granted it is essentially paper and adhesive, but there are a LOT of different paper and adhesive chemistries, some of which can adversely affect the reagent chemistry that impregnates the paper and / or the long-term stability of the test device.
Last Edit: Nov 23, 2014 17:29:52 GMT -5 by sgraber
Heck, if I have time between projects, I might even hack on this a bit (and I've wanted to for a while now). Really it would come down to:
1) Hacking an old Epson printer into accepting a wax/hexane solution and print it with the 100% black setting.
2) Creating an auto-pipettor for pipetting multiple reagent solutions into the appropriate wells in the wax-impregnated paper. Using an inkjet cartridge for this won't work (at least very well) due to viscosity constraints and also the fact that many enzymes are shear sensitive (especially for urine glucose).
I could see the Epson printing out the individual test stamps and then feeding that sheet of paper into an auto-pipettor, which could be powered by a cheap Sanguinololu, RAMPS, etc.
Last Edit: Nov 24, 2014 12:15:00 GMT -5 by sgraber
