If you’re anything like us, you’re probably attached to your smartphones 24/7.
After all, they can pretty much do everything; from playing music to monitoring your sleep, teaching you yoga moves to connecting you with your friends, they’ve become our loyal sidekicks in the modern world.
But, if we had to complain about one thing, it’s that they kind of left us in the cold when it came to finding out whether or not we were pregnant.
Well, thankfully, that all looks set to change in the not-so-distant future.
Anyone fancy a smartphone pregnancy test app?
Yup, researchers from the University of Hanover, Germany, have just developed a fibre optic sensor that could test for a variety of different health conditions - including diabetes and pregnancy.
Yup, researchers from the University of Hanover, Germany, have just developed a fibre optic sensor that could test for a variety of different health conditions - including diabetes and pregnancy.
According to a paper published in The Optical Society, the sensors will monitor multiple types of bodily fluid, such as blood, urine, saliva, sweat or breath.
The readings of the sensor will then be run through an application on a smartphone which provide real-time results - and, in case of medical applications, the sensor readings can be combined with the GPS signal of a smartphone to guide you to your nearest pharmacy or hospital, depending on the results.
If things are really severe, the clever app could also call for an ambulance, scientists have said.
Kort Bremer, inventor and co-author of the paper said: "We have the potential to develop small and robust lab-on-a-chip devices for smartphones. So, surface plasmon resonance sensors could become ubiquitous now."
It all sounds very clever, we guess. But peeing on our beloved iPhone?
We’re just not so sure about that…