New York sources have stated that a novel iPhone-based portable ultrasound machine that can help detect cancer easily at home has been developed by US researchers. Meanwhile the device called Butterfly IQ is a scanner of the size of an electric razor that can display black-and-white imagery of the body, when paired with an iPhone.
It is developed by Connecticut-based start-up Butterfly Network, the pocket sized device works by shooting sound into the body and capturing the echoes. Usually, the sound waves are generated by a vibrating crystal. But Butterfly’s machine instead uses 9,000 tiny drums etched onto a semiconductor chip, reported the MIT Technology Review on Friday.
Earlier this year, John Martin, a US-based vascular surgeon and chief
medical officer at Butterfly Network, discovered a cancerous mass in his own
throat while testing the device. Moreover on his smartphone, to which the device is connected, black-and gray
images quickly appeared. Martin said “The device gives you the ability to do everything at the bedside: you can pull
it out of your pocket and scan the whole body".
