Coupling dye-integrated polymeric membranes with smartphone detection to classify bacteria

We report the use of a colorimetric plastic-based device to discriminate four pathogenic bacteria: Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus vulgaris, Proteus mirabilis and Escherichia coli. The colour changes of the plastic membranes were analysed with RGB values extracted from dye-integrated polymeric membrane images obtained with a smartphone and used as input data for non-supervised pattern recognition methods. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2015