Aydogan Ozcan
is an expert on optics and imaging and leads the Bio- and Nano-Photonics
Laboratory in the Electrical Engineering and Bioengineering Departments
at UCLA. He contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
For decades, the number of transistors in integrated circuits has been
doubling approximately every 18 to 24 months — a trend known as Moore's
Law, which enabled our personal computers to get more and more powerful
every year. Interestingly, the pixel count in cellphone cameras has also
been following Moore's Law for the last decade, reaching approximately
40 megapixels at the end of 2012. I wonder if the same trend of
increasing pixel count can continue for the coming decades, and if it
does, what innovations it will trigger globally — especially in the use
of cellphones for biomedical imaging,
microscopy, telemedicine and remote diagnosis. At what point will the
combination of powerful processors and optical components (including
imaging sensors installed on our smart-phones) make bench-top
micro-analysis and measurement devices entirely obsolete? This will not
only create a paradigm shift for biomedical imaging, sensing and
telemedicine in general, but also it will democratize the practice of
cutting-edge science and engineering globally by creating
cost-effective, field-portable and yet powerful equivalents of advanced
measurement and analysis tools. All these opportunities keep me awake in
the night.
Read Ozcan's recent Op-Ed on his biomedical work: Stunning 3D Sperm Images Reveal New Motion and learn more about Ozcan's work in the NSF.
