Digital imaging as a detector for quantitative colorimetric analyses

In this paper, a digital imaging system was used to analyze a series of colorimetric reagent dots. A commercially available digital camera was used with in-house developed software to capture and analyze data, The color captured was digitized and broken down into three 8-bit color values (red, green and blue). The data was then processed to generate distinct recognizable patterns that represent the original color input. A pH indicator sensor array was used to demonstrate the practicality of the system. Preliminary results show that the system is able to discriminate samples over a wide pH range (pH 1-13) and resolve samples to within ± 0.5 pH units.