Computer screen illumination for the characterization of colorimetric assays

Colorimetric evaluation of samples sorted in a two-dimensional (2D) array is performed with a computer screen used as a controlled light source and a web camera as detector. The transmittance profiles are predicted with a 12 parameters model within errors of 5 or 10% for qualitative or semi-quantitative purposes, respectively. The use of random colour illumination additionally enables robust acquisition with only 50 snap-shots (in less than 1 min) that contains the information of the whole array, independently of the number of samples. 0 2003 Published by Elsevier B.V.