Low-cost optical instrumentation for biomedical measurements

Low-cost instruments for measurement in medicine, biotechnology, and enviro nmental monitoring are presented. Recent developments in optoelectronic tec hnology enable practical compact designs. This article presents the availab le types of light emitters, detectors, and wavelength selection components that are used in low-cost instruments. The main spectroscopic techniques (a bsorption, reflectance, luminescence intensity, lifetime, and polarization, evanescent wave and surface plasmon resonance) that are used with these in struments are described. Numerous examples of devices for a broad variety o f biomedical measurements are presented. (C) 2000 American Institute of Phy sics. [S0034-6748(00)00112-X].