Quantifying the glucose concentration in urine test strip with a color-calibrated imaging system

Abstract

Urine test paper is often used to roughly judge the course of certain diseases, such as diabetes. Excessive glucose in the urine will react with the chemicals in the test strip, and then show an appropriate color to provide human observation and judgment. Generally speaking, the color of the test strip can only tell the approximate glucose concentration in urine through visual observation. Accurate quantification must rely on professional electrochemical analysis equipment. In this study, an imaging system with color correction was developed to quantify the color of urine glucose test paper. Through the composition of high color rendering lighting, darkroom barrel and color algorithm, the measurement results successfully achieved color accuracy with a color deviation of less than 3. A color distribution display method that is more suitable for human observation has been successfully established. The method of swatch contribution analysis has also been developed to numerically quantify the glucose concentration in urine. The results show that the developed system can greatly improve the resolution of urine glucose test strip. This research provides a low-cost, high-quality detection concept that can be used for home medical diagnosis and related chronic disease applications.