Yorktown High School junior Ryan Mark was one of 16 global finalists to compete in the Google Science Fair this past weekend.

The Google Science Fair is an online science competition, open to students between the ages of 13 and 18 from around the world.

Mark’s Project Overview
Considering his smart phone one day, Mark wondered if the camera on his phone could be used to analyze a substance and immediately recognize that substance with the right software. After heavy research and experimentation, he coded a software program that can begin with images taken with and without the infrared smartphone camera setting and analyze them for color and shape to determine the substance tested. He used common random items like food, cotton cloth, aluminum foil, and a leaf for his tests, and his application correctly identified the substances in every case. Mark hopes infrared imaging smartphone technology can be used by the health industry along with his program to identify substances like cancerous cells quickly at a relatively low cost.

Click here to see more about Mark’s project. For more information on the Google Science Fair, click here.