Digital imaging devices as sensors for iron determination

Portable, sensitive and cost-effective sensors represent an unmet need, especially in resource-limited settings and locally deprived communities. Digital imaging devices can fill the gap. Thus, we have tested a desktop scanner, a digital camera and a smartphone to determine iron using three standard colour reactions. Images of reacting solutions were analysed to obtain the RGB (red, green and blue) non-uniform colour space parameters. To improve the calibration linearity, sensitivity, and detection limit, we converted the RGB intensities into six uniform colour space values and two colour differences attributes. The converted signals surpassed the RGB signals and compared well with reference spectrophotometric signals. The simplicity and sensitivity of this approach make digital imaging devices as excellent competitors to field-monitoring instruments and sophisticated spectrophotometers. Our approach was successfully applied to the assessment of iron in Nile river water, soils, plant materials and meat and liver samples.