Cancer diagnosis can be done at home by iPhone-based ultrasound device
A novel iPhone-based portable ultrasound machine that can help detect cancer easily at home has been developed by US researchers. 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. 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. Martin felt an uncomfortable feeling of thickness on his throat, thus he oozed out some gel and ran the probe along with his neck. On his smartphone, to which the device is conn