The Blu-ray disc player has certainly gone through quite an adventure so far, having managed to fend off its main rival format, HD DVD, while slowly but surely making itself a constant presence in our living rooms despite the existence of DVDs. It is also interesting to take note that the humble Blu-ray disc player has been specially hacked that would transform it into a highly affordable salmonella detector. This is made possible thanks to a bunch of medical researchers in Spain.
Considering how this hack would mean the Blu-ray player is not going to be used to watch movies any more, so it made perfect sense to replace the digital video board with one that is capable of receiving an analog signal from the optical pickup. There is still use for a blank Blu-ray disc just yet, where it would act as a platform for the biological samples, where these happen to be specially attracted carefully positioned DNA samples known as “probes” that have been arranged in a unique pattern on the surface of the disc.
Each time the disc is “played,” the laser would scan the area near the probes, resulting in an extremely high resolution image of the sample. This would allow scientists to know whether the presence of dangerous bacteria such as salmonella is there or not. Pretty nifty, no?
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