Measurement strategy and instrumental performance of a computer screen photo-assisted technique for the evaluation of a multi-parameter colorimetric test strip

Abstract

A measuring strategy for the evaluation of a seven parameters colorimetric test using a computer screen photo-assisted technique (CSPT) is demonstrated. CSPT is a versatile approach aimed at point of care or home tests that uses regular computer sets and web cameras as the whole instrument. Issues such as the stability and the equivalency on different platforms of the determinations have been addressed in the present work. The method uses an embedded local reference simultaneously measured with the tests and solves the evaluation as a classification problem. The achieved performance tested along 580 classifications covering all the ranges of the assay, using synthetic samples, yielded 97.2% correct determinations compared with 89.7% for the case of colorimetric determinations. The errors were concentrated in only two parameters that show a significant correlation with a set of quality indices used to assess the performance of the classification.