Team:SJTU-BioX-Shanghai/Applied Design
Applied DesignIn the way of searching for a tool to load our bacteria, we have tried many possibilities. Microfluid chip is too small to vision the color, dry bacteria might be hard to control. Finally, we found glass fiber filter to act as a loader, which means to conserve and shelter the bacteria.
Glass fiber filter has the exact pore size as the e coli. So, it we filtrate the culture solution through this filter, it will conserve the thallus and leave the nutrient liquid.
In this operation, we complete two additional purposes, condense and restrict the bacteria. When looking through the culture solution, it is hard to reckon some tiny color change because of the shallow concentration and the color of nutrient liquid. After condense onto this filter, many small color changes can be much easier be captured by camera or naked eyes. Also, we need a container to restrict and standardize the area to make it possible for analyzers to compare between different experiments.
To visualize the result of the protein, we planning to take picture and transfer the result by the image and RGB value and finally get the concentration. So, the APP ColorAnalyze we designed has two main functions, take photo samples and analyze the color.
When sampling photos, we got two methods. First, the APP can import photos from album, so we choose the pre-cut photos to calculate the color values. The cutting operation is controlled by users, so users cut off the incorrect edge and remain the sample by subjective opinion. Another way to select samples from the photo is setting the limits. Users can set a maximum and minimum value to restrict the RGB value. We use this method to get rid of the white background and dark dots.
When analyzing the color, there are many extraneous factors need control, the most important is the light change. We designed a box to insulate the environment, so that we can control the photoenvironment inside the box. Except for the box, we also develop a method to calculate the standard curve to avoid the environment interfere. Users let some bacteria react with the solution with standard concentration, and then we can reach the concentration of the sample by searching in the standard curve.
We also designed and made a box which could help us take photos to estimate the concentrations of two kinds of inducers. It will provide a stable experimental environment in the calculation process, and a reduced influence of light environment sensitivity of RGB color space. It consists of two parts: Shell and Body. The Shell includes a flat board for mobile phone and a hole for camera lens, and it could slide on the Body freely. The Body includes an ingenious square box, plenty of small circular holes for glass fiber filters and it’s available for a delicate LED.
The box is made of resin. The total weight of the box is 280g. The volome of the phone chamber is 65646.83 mm3, and that of the body is 154473.55 mm3. Detailed size for the chamber is 73.45*16.25*146.60 mm and that of the body is 70.00*89.00*148.60 mm.
This box serves various functions:
1.Fix most mobile phones and help users put their phones to a suitable position to take photos.
2.Include many small circular holes for glass fiber filters which contains our Escherichia coli & inducer liquor.
3.Convenient for users to put into and take out filter scraps.
This part intends to realize the function:get a standard color chart from a n*n matrix which stores color information of combinations of two kinds of inducers. In different combinations, difference of concentration would result in difference of color. We use image processing method to generate a color chart. First,Read an image.Second,Find standard area center. Third,Calculate standard area RGB separately. Finally,Make a gradient color figure by linear interpolation.
