SmartScope
Served as the PM for a team of 10 people working on a smart microscope that combines the brains of a computer with the design of a microscope to allow pathologists to diagnose disorders from digital images rather than physical slides
Overview
I worked as the Project Manager of the SmartScope team at DALI Lab consisting of 4 developers, 4 designers, and our partner Dr. Aravindhan Sriharan (featured in the video below) who is a pathologist at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. Our initial goal was to make a proof-of-concept prototype to utilize for user-testing and analyses. Then, when we felt confident in our product, we finally built a fully-stacked and functional sleek-looking microscope along with an application through with you can organize the slides you are looking at. We attempted to identically replicate the User Experience of a traditional microscope. The product won multiple awards internationally and nationally.
The SmartScope is a microscope for analyzing digitized Whole Slide Images (WSIs) without needing the specimen samples mounted on glass slides. A trained pathologist who would take just a few seconds to make a routine diagnosis using a traditional microscope would likely spend several minutes scrolling through high-resolution images on a monitor if they were using a computer alone. The monitor softwares result in huge losses of time, less accurate image analysis, and overall inconvenience. This device integrates the power of digital processing with the centuries-old ergonomic design of the traditional microscope. Users are able to view a digital image encoded on a QR code placed on a dummy slide and instantly change its position and magnification through physical switches. The SmartScope is poised to integrate traditional microscopy with rapidly emerging health care technologies that rely on AI and expand the possibilities of telemedicine.
Design Considerations
Being the PM of the SmartScope team was a challenging undertaking. I not only structured and oversaw a high-ambiguity, dynamic, technologically first of its kind product’s design timeline, but also was highly involved in the mechanical design of the microscope as one of the only two mechanical engineering majors on the team.
Below, were some of our major design considerations:
Actuating the motion of the turnstile mechanism without interfering with the camera vision was challenging. One of our core motivations was to mimic the traditional microscope UI/UX as closely as possible. In line with this goal, we initially wanted the turnstile to be situated above the dummy slide. This proved to be beyond our capabilities so I stirred the team in the direction of compromising and placing the turnstile directly below the stage that the slide sits on. Some of the options we considered for the actuation were absolute rotary encoders and mechanical actuators but we ultimately ended up working with optical lasers.
We spent a lot of time optimizing the camera detection of the motion of the slide. I was only managing this process due to my lack of sufficient experience with programming. We experimented with different cameras and filtering techniques, in addition to working on object tracking algorithms and packages to make the movement even smoother.
User Feedback & Reception
Winner of the Honorable Mention Award in the 2023 DEBUT Challenge on behalf of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB)
Invited to the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) 2023 Meeting
Accepted for an Oral Presentation at the American Society of Dermatopathology (ASDP) 2023 Meeting
Accepted to the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP) 2024 Meeting
“The SmartScope skillfully marries the growing impact of digital imaging and AI as a tool for diagnostic pathology with the familiarity of sitting at a microscopic instrument”
— Dr. Jessica Bentz
“There was a lot of thought and detail put into the simplistic, yet highly advanced intentions of the SmartScope, while maintaining the essential functionalities of a microscope”
— Dr. Jessica Bentz