Fingerprinting of fluorescent substances for diagnostic purposes using computer screen illumination

Spectral fingerprinting of representative fluorescent substances prospective of potential assays is demonstrated by using a computer screen photo-assisted technique (CSPT) that involves standard computer sets and web cameras as only measuring platform. The unfolding of the recorded information along the color channels of the web camera enables to generate distinctive substance features that retain key spectral information (spectral fingerprints), which are able to disentangle predominant emission from absorption features. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the CSPT measurements and of standard visible absorption/emission spectroscopy performs similarly, allowing substance classification with a ubiquitous and inexpensive resource suitable with home test evaluations. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.