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Updated: Jan 25, 2026

Flying Insect Detection and Classification with Inexpensive Sensors
Published on: October 15, 2014
Inexpensive telecytology solutions that use the Raspberry Pi and the iPhone
Radu Dudas1, Christopher VandenBussche1, Alex Baras1
1Department of Pathology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.
Introduction:
There is currently substantial interest in dynamic telecytology-the presentation of microscopic findings by live video feed to a cytopathologist at a remote location. However, the initial costs of a telecytology system can be high. We present several low-cost alternatives along with their performance characteristics.
Materials And Methods:
We tested 3 low-cost telecytology systems: a Raspberry Pi with a webcam, an iPhone 4S with FaceTime, and an iPhone 4S with a live streaming app. Costs, resolution capacities, and latency periods for image transmission were determined.
Results:
At $85.55, the Raspberry Pi system is the least expensive telecytology solution described to date. When the cost per megapixel of resolution is considered, the cost of a Raspberry Pi system is 120× less than the most expensive commercially available option and about 7-fold less than the iPhone-based alternatives. Latency periods were substantially lower for the iPhone systems: 2.5 ± 1 seconds for FaceTime and 2.8 ± 0.3 seconds for iPhone live streaming versus 6.6 ± 0.6 seconds for the Raspberry Pi system at comparable frame rates.
Conclusions:
This proof-of-principle study demonstrates that inexpensive telecytology systems are able to stream live video feeds of cytology slides from a microscope to a remote location at useable resolutions.
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