sWSI: A Low-cost and Commercial-quality Whole Slide Imaging System on Android and iOS Smartphones

In this paper, scalable Whole Slide Imaging (sWSI), a novel high-throughput, cost-effective and robust whole slide imaging system on both Android and iOS platforms is introduced and analyzed. With sWSI, most mainstream smartphone connected to a optical eyepiece of any manually controlled microscope can be automatically controlled to capture sequences of mega-pixel fields of views that are synthesized into giga-pixel virtual slides. Remote servers carry out the majority of computation asynchronously to support clients running at satisfying frame rates without sacrificing image quality nor robustness. A typical 15x15mm sample can be digitized in 30 seconds with 4X or in 3 minutes with 10X object magnification, costing under $1. The virtual slide quality is considered comparable to existing high-end scanners thus satisfying for clinical usage by surveyed pathologies. The scan procedure with features such as supporting magnification up to 100x, recoding z-stacks, specimen-type-neutral and giving real-time feedback, is deemed work-flow-friendly and reliable.