AI Brings Lab-Grade Microscopic Details Into Smartphone Images

Deep learning, a powerful form of artificial intelligence (AI), has wide spanning uses in a number of fields. Many people worry the technology could prove devastating for humanity, but recently, a group of researchers has shown how it could drastically benefit people, particularly those living in underdeveloped parts of the world. The team, coming from UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, Los Angeles, leveraged deep learning to take standard smartphone camera capabilities up to the level of a lab-grade microscope. This means the images will be taken from a phone, but their quality will be as detailed and precise as from a high-tech laboratory microscope. This could ultimately be used to conduct inexpensive lab-grade analysis in poor parts of the world, where technologies for high-quality diagnostics are unavailable.