System and method for smartphone-based spectrometry for assessing health and nutrition status

A smartphone-based spectrophotometer comprising:

• a housing comprising a front face, a rear face, a reflective surface support portion disposed between the front face and the rear face at an angle adjacent a base of the housing, and a diffraction grating support portion extending from an upper portion of the front face to a portion of the housing adjacent an upper portion of the rear face;
• a reflective surface disposed on the reflective surface support portion in an interior of the housing;
• a diffraction grating disposed on the diffraction grating support portion in the interior of the housing;
• a cuvette holder configured to receive a cuvette having a sample therein and at least temporarily couple the cuvette adjacent the front face;
• and
• a light source, wherein:
• the front face defines a slit disposed adjacent the sample when the cuvette holder is coupled to the housing;
• the housing is configured to support a smartphone having a camera adjacent the rear face of the housing, with the camera facing the housing;
• the light source is configured to cause light to pass through the sample, through the slit, reflect off the mirror and into the diffraction grating;
• and
• the diffraction grating is configured to direct incident light from the diffraction grating into the camera.

A method of determining an amount of a nutrient in a sample, the method comprising:

• providing a spectrophotometer;
• capturing, using the spectrophotometer, an image of the sample;
• generating, by computing hardware, a pixel intensity profile of the image;
• mapping, by the computing hardware, a pixel position of each pixel to a wavelength;
• calculating, by the computing hardware, an absorbance at least wavelength;
• generating, by the computing hardware, an absorbance spectra based on the absorbance at each wavelength;
• and
• providing, by the computing hardware, the absorbance spectra for display on a computing device.