The technologies behind WaterScope
The team at WaterScope have developed a fast and inexpensive water testing kit that quantifies bacterial contamination within 1-2 hours – ten times quicker than current technology.
Significantly smaller, lighter, and cheaper than today’s testing kits, it will allow more sites to be monitored more frequently and more easily. Once fully developed, it will be the fastest bacterial test kit available.
The method will also allow for rapid testing of different pathogens such as E. coli, Listeria, Legionella and pathogenic E. coli 0157.
Using an innovative and inexpensive 3D-printable microscope linked to a Raspberry Pi, it tracks the growth of bacteria in water samples and presents the results to users in real-time on a smartphone, tablet or PC. The technologies behind it are three-fold:
- The bacteria testing kit to sample the water
- The 3D printable microscope to take images of the samples
- The image recognition software to analyse the images