Smartphone-based spectrometer with high spectral accuracy for mHealth application

Abstract Utilizing its integrated camera, smartphone transforms to a burgeoning spectrometer which is promising for mHealth. However, this type of device suffers from the nonlinear sensitivity of camera which result in the imprecision of spectra. Here, we report a smartphone spectrometer with special designed calibration method to improve the spectral accuracy. Both wavelength calibration and intensity correction are adopted to eliminate the influence of nonlinear sensitivity from CMOS camera. The calibrated smartphone spectrometer is tested via comparing the fluorescence and absorption spectra of Rhodamine B with a standard commercial spectrometer. Meanwhile, the feasibility of this device in mHealth application is demonstrated via quantitative detection of creatinine. We argue that the high spectral accuracy and multimode-supporting ability enable the proposed smartphone spectrometer a powerful tool for mHealth with time and cost saving.