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Water turbidity sensing using a smartphone†

Cite this: RSC Adv., 2016, 6, 22374
I. Hussain,a K. Ahamadb and P. Nath*a

This paper demonstrates a rapid, cost-effective and field-portable smartphone based turbidimeter that
measures turbidity of water samples collected from different natural water resources and in drinking
water. The working of the designed sensor is based on a Mie-scattering principle where suspended
micro (m-) particles in water medium scatter a strong light signal along the normal direction of the
incoming light signal, which can be detected by an infra-red (IR) proximity sensor embedded in the
smartphone. Two freely available android applications were used to measure the irradiance of the
scattered flux and analyse the turbidity of the medium. With the designed sensor, water turbidity
variation as low as 0.1 NTU can be measured accurately in the turbidity value ranging from 0 to 400
NTU. The sensor responses for these ranges of turbid media are found to be linear. A high repeatability
Received 27th January 2016
Accepted 13th February 2016
in the sensor characteristics is also been observed. The optics design involved for the development of
the proposed smartphone turbidimeter is simple and is robust in operation. The designed sensing
DOI: 10.1039/c6ra02483a
technique could emerge as a truly portable, user-friendly and inexpensive turbidity sensing tool that
www.rsc.org/advances would be useful for different in-field applications.

Both of these techniques depend on the observers' perception

Introduction thus, turbidity readings may vary from observer to observer. In
The presence of organic and inorganic m-particles in water recent years several groups have demonstrated the usability of
bodies affects the lives of aquatic living organisms.1 Also, the optical bers for monitoring of turbidity in different liquid
presence of such m-particles in drinking water above the medium.8,9 Very recently, single photon counting based tech-
threshold level may cause serious health hazards to our society.2 nique10 has been proposed to monitor turbidity of liquid
Thus, accurate monitoring of such m-particles in water medium medium. Using this technique water turbidity as low as 0.1 NTU
bears a great relevance as far as water quality monitoring of could be measured accurately. Another optical approach that
natural water resources and drinking water is concerned. measures turbidity in liquid medium is based on light scat-
Turbidity is a measure of water clarity which means how much tering principle.11 Nephelometric 90
light scattering measure-
the suspended m-particle in water medium affect the passage of ment is considered to be the standard method for turbidity
light through it. Highly turbid water causes strong scattering of measurement in nephelometric turbidity unit (NTU).12 This
the incident light signal which in turn, may lead to reduction in approach is based on intensity comparison of the scattered light
photosynthesis process of aquatic ora. This may affect the beam from a given water sample under investigation to the
production of dissolved oxygen in aquatic medium.3 Further, laboratory prepared standard reference turbid medium such as
a highly turbid water or water having high levels of suspended formazin standard suspension.13 The technique is primarily
solids absorbs more sunlight and may cause rise in temperature based on Mie-scattering principle where quasi-collimated light
of the water bodies. This may subsequently affects the aquatic beam from an IR source is allowed to incident on a turbid
lives of some living organisms.4 Highly turbid water medium is medium and the scattered ux from this medium is monitored
a favorable condition for growth of waterborne pathogens.5 All at right angle to the direction of the incident beam. For overall
suspended inorganic, organic and m-organisms in water causes estimation of suspended particle concentration where size of
light scattering which can be estimated by commercially avail- the particles may vary from less than 2 mm to 2000 mm, Mie-
able turbidimeter such as 2100Q portable turbidimeter from scattering principle is valid. Hence, for monitoring of overall
Hach Inc.6 Two of the common approaches for monitoring of quality of water, nephelometric technique is being widely used.
water turbidity are Jackson candle method and Secchi disk.7 With the improved hardware and soware, smart built-in
sensors and freely downloadable applications that enable easy
data analysis and interpretation make smartphones a primary
a
Applied Photonics and Nanophotnics Laboratory, Department of Physics, Tezpur
choice for many researchers across the globe to develop it as
University, Napaam 784028, India. E-mail: [email protected]
b
alternative sensing tools for different physical, chemical and
Department of Civil Engineering, Tezpur University, Napaam 784028, India
† Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI:
biological sensing applications.14–19 High megapixel imaging
10.1039/c6ra02483a sensor of the smartphone nds its applications in imaging and

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detection of different biological samples.20,21 Using the rear hours in room temperature. The turbidity of the resultant
camera of the smartphone and simple optical components, the solution is estimated to be 400 NTU. From this mother solution
smartphone based optical set-up can measure optical phase other low turbid medium can be prepared by using the
difference as small as p/256 in an optical interference process.22 following equation:29
Dutta et al.23 have successfully demonstrated the measurement
Required amount of stock solution
of optical absorption bands of different colored dyes and pH
ðvolume of dilution to be preparedÞ  ðdesired NTU valueÞ
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level of different water bodies. Koydemir et al.24 have demon- ¼

ðNTU of working suspensionÞ
strated that using the imaging sensor of the smartphone,
presence of waterborne parasites such as Giardia lamblia cysts (1)
in drinking water can be detected.
The integrated proximity and ambient light sensor Using the above guiding equation, different formazin stan-
embedded in the front panel of the smartphone is meant for dard turbid media have been prepared in the laboratory with
optimizing battery power consumption by the phone. This turbidity value ranging from 0.1 NTU to 400 NTU.
sensor assembly is composed of one low power IR light emitting
diode (LED) and two photodiodes. One photodiode is sensitive
to both visible and IR spectrum used for ambient light sensing Working principle
and the second photodiode is sensitive primarily to IR light for The proposed sensing system is based on standard ISO-7027,
proximity detection. For all smartphones, the peak emission International Organization for Standardization for water
wavelength range of the IR-LED matches the peak wavelength quality in which the scattered radiation ux from a turbid
response of the IR detector which is found to be in the wave- medium is measured at right angle to the direction of the
length range of 700–900 nm. In the present work by exploring incoming signal.30 According to Mie-scattering principle, the
the IR-detector of the smartphone and by using simple optical radiation ux scattered by a suspended particles is given by the
components and freely available applications, an attempt has following equation:31,32
been made to design a sensitive, cost-efficient and truly eld
portable turbidimeter. To analyze the IR sensor data, freely 3 VcEQs
F¼ (2)
available android platform based applications namely ‘light 2 rD
meter’25 and ‘stanXY’26 have been used. The designed smart- where, F is the scattered light ux, V is the scattered volume, c is
phone turbidimeter is based on Mie-scattering principle where the suspended particle concentration in the medium, E is the
light signal from an IR-LED is allowed to incident on a turbid irradiance of the incident beam, Qs is the scattering efficiency
medium and scattered light from the medium is captured at which depends both on the size of the m-particle present in the
right angle by the smartphone IR detector. For scattered ux medium and wavelength of the incident radiation, r is the
receiving at right angle to the direction of the incoming signal, particle density and D is the particle diameter. In nephelometry,
the irradiance of the scattered beam depends on the concen- the scattered ux is measured at right angle to the direction of
tration of the m-particles present in the medium and least incoming radiation. For this specic angle, the scattered ux F
sensitive to the dimension of the particle size.27 The sensor becomes least sensitive to the size of the particles27 and thus, Qs
responses for both laboratory grade formazin standard solu- will depend only on wavelength of the incident radiation.
tions and water samples collected from different locations of Hence, for same incident IR-radiation, the scattering ux F
Sonitpur district of Assam have been observed and evaluated. would be directly proportional to the concentration of the
m-particles present in the medium.
Materials and methods Again, the relationship between turbidity in NTU to the total
suspended solid (TSS) in mg L1 is given by:33
To prepare formazin standard turbid medium, analytical grade
reagent hexamethylenetetramine ((CH2)6N4) (product no. NTU ¼ a(TSS)b (3)
398160) and hydrazine sulfate (H6N2O4S) (product no. 489735)
were procured from Sigma-Aldrich Inc. All chemicals have been where, a and b are coefficients of regression estimation and
used as received without further processing. Following the b can be taken as unity for all particles in consideration to water
standard procedure described by the U.S Environmental analysis. From eqn (2) and (3) it can be inferred that if other
Protection Agency,28 a 400 NTU standard turbid medium has parameters are kept constant, then the irradiance of the scat-
been prepared initially in the laboratory. The synthesis proce- tered ux will be proportional to the turbidity of the medium.
dure is as follows – 1.000 g of hydrazine sulfate is dissolved in
100 mL of distilled water in a volumetric ask and labeled as Experimental setup
solution 1. 10.000 g of hexamethylenetetramine is dissolved in
100 mL of distilled water in a volumetric ask and labeled it as Fig. 1(a) shows the schematic of the experimental set-up of our
solution 2. Now in a 200 mL volumetric ask 5 mL each of the designed smartphone turbidimeter. To develop the turbidim-
solution 1 and 2 are mixed and total volume of the solution is eter, the proximity sensor of Sony Experia E3 smartphone was
made to 100 mL by adding 90 mL of distilled water. The utilized. Sony Xperia series smartphones contain Avago APDS-
resultant solution would be ready for use aer keeping it for 24 9930 or ams AG (TAOS) TMD2771 integrated proximity and

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Fig. 1 (a) A schematic diagram of the proposed setup with different components (b) photo image of the designed smartphone turbidimeter (c)
inside view of the turbidimeter compartment.

ambient light sensor chip.34–36 The detail specications of the convex lens (7 mm diameter, focal length 11 mm, Edmund
phone used and spectral response of the IR detector is usually Optics 32-404) and allowed to fall on the turbid medium. The
found in the wavelength range of 830–890 nm. In general, all light signal scattered from this turbid medium is received at
smartphones irrespective of its model and variant, the peak right angle to the direction of the incoming beam by the IR
spectral response of the embedded IR photo-detector is found detector of the smartphone. In order to ensure only 90
scat-
to be in this wavelength range. An IR LED with peak emission tered light signal is being received by the detector, a 1 mm
wavelength 870 nm (product no. L12756 Hamamatsu) is pow- diameter pinhole (Edmund Optics 56-291) is placed in front of
ered from the smartphone battery by using a mini USG-OTG the detector. For the present set-up, the separation between the
(on-the-go) cable is used to illuminate the turbid medium. pin hole and the sample holder is 25 mm. Considering that the
The USB port in smartphones is based on dened recognized light scattering is taking place from the center of the sample
protocols which make this port universal for all smart- holder, then the scattered ux arriving at the IR detector will
phones.37,38 Any device compatible with the USB port provides vary within the range 90
 1.14
which is well below the limit
a current rating of 500 mA at 5 V. In the present work the IR LED set by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) U.S. guideline.30
is connected to the USB-OTG through a 220 U resistor. The Detail calculation for measurement of scattering angle in the
emitted IR beam from the LED is collimated using a plano- present optical set-up is provided in the ESI.† Fig. 1(b) shows

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the photo image of the designed smartphone turbidimeter measure the turbidity of an unknown medium, the reading of
while Fig. 1(c) shows the photograph of the optical set-up which the scattered ux irradiance is plotted in the standard calibra-
has been attached to the smartphone. All optical components tion curve. Thus, by using these two smartphone applications,
including the smart phone have been mounted in a custom the turbidity of any unknown samples can be estimated easily
developed plastic holder made of Nylon. The inner wall of the with the designed sensing set-up.
Nylon block is blackened so that affect of the ambient light on
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the IR detector is minimum. Low cost, high mechanical

strength and superior resistance to wear from chemicals make Experimental result
Nylon material a primary choice for fabricating the optical
holder in the present investigation. The overall dimension of The designed smartphone turbidimeter was rst calibrated with
the setup was measured to be 140 mm in length, 80 mm in both the formazin standard turbid medium. Formazin standard
breadth and 40 mm in width; the weight of the proposed device medium of different turbidity value ranging from 40 NTU to 400
along with the phone was approximately 250 g.

Workflow of the smartphone

application
Fig. 2 shows the process ow of the proposed smartphone
turbidimeter. The freely available ‘light meter’ app for android
smartphone measures the irradiance of the scattered ux in
LUX unit. This specic app measures the average value through
recording of minimum and the maximum variation of the
scattered ux irradiance for a specic period of time. In order to
plot the variation of the scattered ux intensity with turbidity
another free app ‘stanXY’ was used in the present work. Using
the app characteristic plot of the scattered ux irradiance versus
turbidity for standard turbid medium was rst obtained. To Fig. 3 Photo images of the prepared formazin standard samples.

Fig. 2 Work flow of the smartphone applications for turbidity measurement of water samples.

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NTU in step of 40 NTU have been prepared from the 400 NTU
stock solution. To obtain low value turbid medium from the
stock solution, the dilution procedure was followed as
explained in the material and method section. Fig. 3 shows the
photo images of 10 different turbid medium of formazin stan-
dard solutions.
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Prior to study the sensor characteristics, turbidity value of all

the formazin standard samples have been measured using
laboratory grade standard turbidimeter (Systronics India, mC
turbidity meter model no. 135). Turbidity of the prepared
samples were measured by the designed smartphone turbi-
dimeter. The average value of scattered ux irradiance of all the
considered samples have been measured for a period of 5
seconds. Fig. 4(a) shows the characteristic plot of the normal-
ized scattered ux intensity with the variation in turbidity value
for different Formazin standard media. The linear tted line
with the value of co-efficient of regression R2 ¼ 0.99727 implies

Fig. 5 (a) Sensor response for formazin samples with turbidity value
ranging from 1 NTU to 10 NTU (b) sensor response for the range 0 NTU
to 1 NTU and (c) the uncertainty found in 10 times measurement for
Fig. 4 (a) Smartphone sensor response curve for high turbidity value
the range 0 NTU to 1 NTU.
of formazin standards solutions and (b) residual plot of sensor
response curve.

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that turbidity of any sample can be measured almost precisely The relation between the scattered ux irradiance versus
and accurately with our designed sensor. Fig. 4(b) shows the turbidity of the standard medium is plotted using ‘stanXY’
residual versus tted graph that ensures the validity of our application soware and the screenshot image of the smart-
regression model. From this regression analysis, following phone reading is shown in Fig. 2.
equation can be used to measure turbidity of unknown water Again, according to EPA U.S., the turbidity limit in drinking
samples: water, should be below 1.0 NTU. Water turbidity of 1.0 NTU or
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ðnormalized intensity  0:25112Þ less is protective against cryptosporidium break-through in the

Turbidity ¼ (4) medium. According to Indian standards (IS), the permissible
0:00189
value of turbidity in drinking water is 1.0 NTU and in the
absence of alternate source, this value can be as high as 5.0
NTU.39,40 The performance of the designed sensor is therefore
further evaluated for low turbid medium. 10 more samples of
formazin standard medium with turbidity value ranging from
0.1 NTU to 1 NTU in step incremental value of 0.1 NTU and
another 10 more samples with turbidity value ranging from 1
NTU to 10 NTU in step incremental value of 1 NTU have been
prepared in the laboratory. The turbidity value of the prepared
samples have been measured 10 times with our designed sensor
and the average values were recorded. Fig. 5(a) and b illustrate
the sensor response of the designed sensor for all the consid-
ered samples. A fairly linear sensor response has been observed
even at the low turbidity value of the medium. Here, 0.0 NTU is
considered for distilled water when it was placed in the optical
path of the set-up. An offset has been noticed in the designed
set-up which was attributed to the thermal uctuations of the
detector and output power uctuations of the IR-source. The
sensor characteristic curve in Fig. 5(b) implies that even for low
turbid media the sensor response found to be linear with R2 ¼
0.9914. Fig. 5(c) shows the uncertainty in measurements
Fig. 6 Sensor response characteristics for different colored turbid produced for 10 sets of readings for each sample in the turbidity
samples.

Fig. 7 Satellite image shows a part of Sonitpur district of Assam India. Water samples collected locations have been marked in red in this image.

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The usability of the designed sensor for in-eld applications

has also been evaluated. Water samples from different sources
in Sonitpur district of Assam has been collected during June–
July 2015. Fig. 7 shows the geographical map of Sonitpur district
adapted from Google maps with red spots indicating the loca-
tions from where water samples have been collected. Also, 3
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more clay mixed water samples have been prepared in the

laboratory. Turbidity value of the eld-collected and clay
mixed water media have been measured initially with the
standard turbidimeter. We then measure the turbidity value of
all these samples by our designed turbidimeter. Fig. 8 illus-
trates the histogram representation of the turbidity measure-
ment provided by the designed smartphone sensor and the
standard turbidimeter. The error bar of the experimental data
yielded by the smartphone turbidimeter indicates that the
sensor has very low experimental error and this implies high
reliability of the designed sensor for in-eld turbidity sensing
applications.
Owing to the involvement of low cost components, we
believe that the proposed sensing scheme could emerge as
a potentially inexpensive tool for sensing of water quality with
high accuracy and repeatability. The net cost involved for
Fig. 8 Histogram representation of comparison of turbidity
measurement of the collected and laboratory prepared clay-mixed development of the smartphone turbidimeter excluding the
water samples by the standard turbidity meter and by our smartphone smartphone was $86. The response of the proximity sensor for
turbidimeter. three different smartphones namely Sony Xperia E3, Asus Zen-
fone2 and Moto G xt1033 have been evaluated for same incident
IR-radiation. It has been found that for same version light meter
application almost similar responses have been observed for all
range 0.0 NTU to 1 NTU. The maximum uncertainty in the three different smartphones. The photo images of the
measurement is found to be approximately 0.065 NTU. This detector response of these phones have been provided in the
indicate that the proposed senor can reliably measure the ESI.† By exploiting m-internet facility it is possible to share the
turbidity variation as low as 0.1 NTU with good accuracy. in-eld turbidity data with the central water quality monitoring
Due to the presence of algae, phytoplankton or other different laboratory anywhere in the world in almost in real time envi-
organic substances in natural water bodies, there could be ronment. With the user friendly apps for data recording and
a colour variation in water medium which may affect the sensor analysis, the proposed sensing system can even be used by an
response. Therefore, the sensor characteristics have further been inexperienced person to monitor turbidity of different water
evaluated for different coloured turbid media. In order to medium.
investigate this specic characteristic of the sensor we consider In the present work the proximity sensor of the smartphone
four different Formazin standard samples with turbidity values has been explicitly exploited along with the freely available
10 NTU, 20 NTU, 30 NTU and 40 NTU. Turbidity value of most of smartphone applications for reliable and accurate estimation of
the environmental water bodies are found in these range (10–40 turbidity of water medium. Although smartphone based plat-
NTU). The prepared samples were then mixed with four coloured form turbidimeter are commercially available such as from
dyes namely red, green, yellow and blue prepared in distilled Aguaclara41 and Arbor Scientic,42 the working principle of the
water. Fig. 6 shows the sensor response curves for these different present smartphone turbidimeter is different from those
coloured samples with reference to the clean formazin samples. sensors. In the commercially available turbidimeters, the
Inset gure shows photograph of the prepared coloured For- smartphone has been used primarily for data acquisition which
mazin samples along with the clear Formazin sample. It has has been transferred from an external turbidity sensor. The
been observed that except the red coloured turbid medium, the smartphone proximity sensor is not utilized as a detector in
response of the designed sensor for all other coloured media and those sensors. The use of separate photo-detector, battery unit
clear Formazin sample were almost same. This is attributed to are required for interfacing with the smartphones which
the spectral range of the IR-detector response (given in ESI†) signicantly increases its cost. In the present sensor, we have
covers the red region (700 nm) of the visible spectrum and this utilized the smartphone both for detection and data analysis
has perturbed the sensor characteristics. To measure the purpose. Further the use of smartphone battery reduces its
turbidity of red coloured medium, an IR lter (850–860 nm) overall cost signicantly. Table 1 compares the performance of
should be placed in the path between the IR detector and the our designed sensor with respect to its commercially available
sample holder so that it could eliminate the affect due to color of counterparts.
the medium.

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Table 1 Comparison of the proposed smartphone turbidimeter with the existing smartphone operated turbidimeters

Arbor scientic's
AguaClara's smartphone smartphone turbidity Proposed smartphone
Device specications turbidimeter sensor module turbidimeter Remarks

Hardware used (1) External turbidity (1) External turbidity (1) Infra-red LED The smartphone battery is
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sensor which includes: (a) sensor which includes: (a) (2) USB-OTG cable used to power the IR LED.
LED, (b) external battery, LED, (b) external battery, (3) Sample cell No external photo detector
(c) photo-detectors, (d) (c) photo-detectors, (d) (4) Lens and pinhole is used to measure
analog to digital converter, analog to digital converter, (5) Plastic holder scattered light ux from
(e) sample cell, (f) USB/ (e) sample cell, (f) wi- (6) Smartphone the turbid medium
bluetooth interface module
(2) Smartphone (2) Smartphone
Soware used (1) Turbidimeter app (1) NeuLog soware (1) Light meter app (free) Here two freely available
(2) Communication (2) Phone web browser (2) ‘stanXY’ app (free) apps have been used for
soware package detection and analysis of
scattered ux radiation.
These apps are compatible
with any android
smartphone
Operational range Unknown 0–200 NTU 0–400 NTU The proposed device has
a higher dynamic range
Sensitivity Unknown 0.08 NTU 0.1 NTU The sensitivity is nearly
comparable to its
commercially available
counterparts
Cost (excluding $100 $111.99 $86.00 The cost is less as
smartphone) compared to the others

Conclusion plastic holder in the present work. I. Hussain gratefully

acknowledges the nancial support received from UGC, New
A cost-effective, robust and eld portable turbidimeter using the Delhi for awarding Maulana Azad National fellowship for
proximity sensor of the smartphone has been demonstrated. Minority students 2014–15.
The IR detector of the proximity sensor of the smartphone has
been utilized to measure scattered radiation ux form turbid
water samples. Using simple optical set-up and freely available
applications, turbidity of different Formazin standard medium References
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