The AI and ML-powered testing device delivers a COVID-19 test result in just a second.

Medicircle Health, a Mumbai-based diagnostic company, launched this week SpectraLIT, a portable device that instantly detects Covid-19. (Swarajya)

SpectraLIT is developed by Newsight Imaging. It is a development kit based on Newsight’s spectrometer-on- chip. It allows for spectral profiling of substances in wavelengths between 400 to 700 nm in a matter of seconds. SpectraLIT is controlled by a Windows-based demo SW that displays, analyzes and stores the spectral profiles of the tested substance.

Newsight Imaging

Newsight Imaging is an Israeli startup developing imaging solutions and chips for spectral and machine vision applications. In March it announced that SpectraLIT™, powered by Virusight Diagnostic’s AI software, which enables COVID-19 diagnosis in seconds, had received the Conformité Européene (CE-European Conformity) Mark approval.

The CE marking confirms that SpectraLIT™ meets the requirements of the European Medical Devices Directive.

Tests of the device in Israel have shown that its results are 95% accurate compared to an RT-PCR test.  Similar studies in India showed 93.5% concordance to RT-PCR.

Covid-19

The device, now launched in India, detects the presence of Covid-19 from the patient’s nasal or mouthwash sample, and delivers its verdict instantly by using the spectral signature of the virus.

“With SpectraLIT, India will be able to test accurately and rapidly — not within days, not within hours, not within minutes but within seconds,” said Pranav Kohli, Partner, in a statement.

The device has an AI algorithm that distinguishes the infected samples from healthy ones.

The algorithm learns from its results as the data set of spectral signatures grows, gradually improving its accuracy even further.

It is anticipated that SpectraLIT will eventually also be successfully used to detect other infections such as influenza, tuberculosis, malaria, dengue, and UTIs, as well as non-communicable diseases such as sickle cell disease.

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