SpectraPhone: A Smartphone Based Spectrometer for High-Resolution Urinalysis

SpectraPhone: A Smartphone Based Spectrometer for High-Resolution Urinalysis | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article SpectraPhone: A Smartphone Based Spectrometer for High-Resolution Urinalysis Kefan Song, Ilan Mandel, Jason Cobb, Tanzeem Choudhury, Alexander Adams This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7143209/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects millions worldwide but remains under-diagnosed, especially in resource-limited settings. Current diagnostic methods, including visual and dipstick urinalysis, lack quantitative accuracy, while laboratory-based tests remain inaccessible for routine or remote monitoring. Here we present SpectraPhone, a smartphone-integrated, portable spectrometer designed for quantitative, point-of-care urinalysis. Leveraging the smartphone's built-in camera and flashlight, SpectraPhone captures high-resolution spectral data to accurately quantify hematuria and albuminuria, which are both biomarkers of CKD. Through rigorous optical characterization and empirical validation, SpectraPhone demonstrates superior quantification performance, accurately measuring red blood cell concentrations (R 2 =0.9913, RMSE=61.6086 RBC/μL, MAE=43.9077 RBC/μL) and albumin levels (R 2 =0.9981, RMSE=11.8525 mg/dL, MAE=8.4985 mg/dL), significantly surpassing the capabilities of conventional qualitative methods. With the addition of bromophenol blue reagent, SpectraPhone achieves more accurate urine albumin measurements (R 2 =0.9997, RMSE=4.2583 mg/dL, MAE=3.2625 mg/dL), enabling clinical-grade albuminuria detection. SpectraPhone’s affordability, ease of use, and robust performance highlight its potential to transform routine CKD screening, facilitate early detection, improve disease management, and increase healthcare access globally. Health sciences/Medical research/Translational research Health sciences/Medical research/Biomarkers/Diagnostic markers Health sciences/Diseases/Kidney diseases/Chronic kidney disease Health sciences/Health care/Diagnosis Chronic kidney disease mobile spectroscopy urine testing hematuria albuminuria Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7143209","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":487061070,"identity":"ff6705c0-1ee4-4ac3-87fc-b16c920d9230","order_by":0,"name":"Kefan Song","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA5ElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACCRDB+O+fHJjH2AAkDhCjhYHtgDEDAzOJWhIbiNYi2X/42MMvPHfS57ufP/jg5w4GOb4bCfi1SEukpRvLSDzL3Xgmmdmw9wyDsSQhLXISPGbSEgbMuRsbktmkGdsYEjcQ1MJ/BqglgTndsP8x+2+glnqCWqQZcswkPxw4nCAvkczGDNSSYEBIi+SMtDRpxoY0ww0Sj40le9skDGeeeYBfi8T5w8ckfzbYyMv3Jz788LPNRp7vOAFbQICZB0gYHIAYQVg5CDD+ABLyDcQpHgWjYBSMghEIAKScRaUDyvhzAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9788-9878","institution":"Georgia Institute of Technology","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Kefan","middleName":"","lastName":"Song","suffix":""},{"id":487061071,"identity":"a5cc3a8c-4962-42e2-9f9e-7d788b21c379","order_by":1,"name":"Ilan Mandel","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Cornell Tech","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ilan","middleName":"","lastName":"Mandel","suffix":""},{"id":487061072,"identity":"0fa33182-708e-4385-8319-c0b67b5b2d87","order_by":2,"name":"Jason Cobb","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Emory University School of Medicine","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jason","middleName":"","lastName":"Cobb","suffix":""},{"id":487061073,"identity":"971463ee-b951-46af-af70-f1f23fc9ab8b","order_by":3,"name":"Tanzeem Choudhury","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Cornell Tech","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Tanzeem","middleName":"","lastName":"Choudhury","suffix":""},{"id":487061074,"identity":"80ad40fb-de08-4028-a11d-268eee916e8f","order_by":4,"name":"Alexander Adams","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Georgia Institute of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Alexander","middleName":"","lastName":"Adams","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-07-16 20:40:51","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7143209/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7143209/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":87922303,"identity":"49d5e2a8-a536-4f04-a210-32a8bf528a61","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-07-30 11:55:05","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":2194618,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Article File","description":"","filename":"SpectraPhoneNatureBME.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7143209/v1_covered_704ae8c6-a075-4b7f-992e-62f5b98d7ca6.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"SpectraPhone: A Smartphone Based Spectrometer for High-Resolution Urinalysis","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Chronic kidney disease, mobile spectroscopy, urine testing, hematuria, albuminuria","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7143209/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7143209/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects millions worldwide but remains under-diagnosed, especially in resource-limited settings. Current diagnostic methods, including visual and dipstick urinalysis, lack quantitative accuracy, while laboratory-based tests remain inaccessible for routine or remote monitoring. Here we present SpectraPhone, a smartphone-integrated, portable spectrometer designed for quantitative, point-of-care urinalysis. Leveraging the smartphone's built-in camera and flashlight, SpectraPhone captures high-resolution spectral data to accurately quantify hematuria and albuminuria, which are both biomarkers of CKD. Through rigorous optical characterization and empirical validation, SpectraPhone demonstrates superior quantification performance, accurately measuring red blood cell concentrations (R\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e=0.9913, RMSE=61.6086 RBC/μL, MAE=43.9077 RBC/μL) and albumin levels (R\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e=0.9981, RMSE=11.8525 mg/dL, MAE=8.4985 mg/dL), significantly surpassing the capabilities of conventional qualitative methods. With the addition of bromophenol blue reagent, SpectraPhone achieves more accurate urine albumin measurements (R\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e=0.9997, RMSE=4.2583 mg/dL, MAE=3.2625 mg/dL), enabling clinical-grade albuminuria detection. SpectraPhone’s affordability, ease of use, and robust performance highlight its potential to transform routine CKD screening, facilitate early detection, improve disease management, and increase healthcare access globally.","manuscriptTitle":"SpectraPhone: A Smartphone Based Spectrometer for High-Resolution Urinalysis","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-07-30 06:19:33","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7143209/v1","editorialEvents":[],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"4802f979-1b73-43cf-bf56-e768d9c2f6df","owner":[],"postedDate":"July 30th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":51711988,"name":"Health sciences/Medical research/Translational research"},{"id":51711989,"name":"Health sciences/Medical research/Biomarkers/Diagnostic markers"},{"id":51711990,"name":"Health sciences/Diseases/Kidney diseases/Chronic kidney disease"},{"id":51711991,"name":"Health sciences/Health care/Diagnosis"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-07-30T15:06:02+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-07-30 06:19:33","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7143209","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7143209","identity":"rs-7143209","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}