Your mobile phone could soon be used as a simple tool to detect eye problems.

Just snap a photo of your eye using your mobile phone camera, and let a software detect if you have a cataract.

The idea was developed by a group of Ngee Ann Polytechnic students as part of their final-year project.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic student, Muhammad Razi Bin Mohd, said: "The only method right now which we have known of detecting cataracts is the doctor looking at you in the eye and confirming that there's a cataract. However our project makes it easier, because all you have to do is to upload the image file onto the software and it will tell you whether your eye is infected with a cataract or not."

It was one of the winning projects under the Polytechnic Student Research Programme.

Another winning idea came from the Singapore Polytechnic.

The students came up with a microchip that can tell if you're infected by various diseases such as the dengue or even the SARS virus.

The budding scientists claim that by using the chip, the various diseases will be shown up in colours, much faster than current methods.

The students were part of six research groups representing Ngee Ann, Temasek and Singapore polytechnics.

The Polytechnic Student Research Programme requires poly students to collaborate with two local universities.

Foo See Meng, Ngee Ann Polytechnic's Senior Director, School of Engineering, said, "I think the role that the polytechnic can play is that our education is very applied in nature. We teach our students a very hands-on kind of education." - CNA/ir