Re: [DIYbio] DIYbio-esque App wins 1st at YC-Hacks

On 08/04/2014 11:46 AM, Nathan McCorkle wrote:
> The images in the first link you posted are quite crappy IMO.

Yes, but...
They say, "The attachment magnifies/focuses on the sample by means of a 1mm ball lens."

That's sounding like Van Leeuwenhoek's early microscope lenses, and yes the images look
very so so, but maybe the imaging software can do an edge detect and lose all the out-of-focus-blur
and analyze what's left... Instead of a perfect image, it may be more important to
scan along the whole area under consideration, then change depth of focus, rescan,
repeat-while-necessary to get a 3D map of images, then recombine some of them if needed
for a positive ID of what is floating at that spot. If you're talking about doing White cell count
and red cell count, identifying parasites is not so important. You already know you started
with someone's blood, so all you need to tell is is it a WB cell or a red corpuscle.

Getting a volume correct might be more valuable and maybe a standard count by humans
uses such a small volume squashed under a cover slip that a lancet drop
would give better counts than a big old vial.

> Garbage in, garbage out.
>
> On Mon, Aug 4, 2014 at 8:06 AM, Will Sutton <wsutton17@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Athelas, an iphone app to do hematology (blood imaging) won first place in a
>> Y-Combinator hackathon this weekend. It strikes me as very DIY-esque, doing
>> something complicated and expensive on a minimum budget.

That's just tech innovation is all.

>>
>> Over in the discussion on H/N, I'm seeing a lot of poo-poo-ing of the
>> feasibility by actual technicians.
>>
>> What do you guys think: Can good ML on cheap devices increasingly replace
>> lab tests?

What do you mean by ML?
Machine Lab?

Yes, it going to be the answer, but not on cheap generic hardware, on semi secret sauce
MEMS/CMOS fabbed silicon hardware by theranos.com See this article: http://fortune.com/2014/06/12/theranos-blood-holmes/

Also, is this a harbinger of more buy-in for DIYbio concepts from
>> the mainstream venture community?

Like Bryan said, no, the VCs want leverageable ways to offer more for less in high volume
to the masses and delivered by teams of twenty-somethings that will work for stock options
and make them, (the VCs), rich by 100X ROI.

There's nothing DIY about more for less.
More bang for less bucks the driver behind business in general.

DIY is often less for less. Less as in -- with the materials at hand, crude and unpolished.

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