The LighTouch uses a method called Raman spectroscopy to focus a laser—which Chaiken refers to as a “CD-player type of laser that has been kicked up a notch to deliver a purer red color,”—onto the fingertip and analyze the various colors of the light exiting the finger. These colors are indicative of the types and quantities of the different chemicals in the tissue being illuminated by the laser. By making two such measurements, first with the fingertip under no pressure and the second with slight pressure applied to the flesh, researchers are able to compare the measurements and analyze only those colors that come from the part of the fingertip which moves under slight pressure—the blood. The procedure is completely painless and produces results with accuracy and precision comparable to existing fingerstick devices.

“Just as an electrocardiogram machine (EKG) produces an electrocardiogram, the LighTouch produces a Ramagram,” says Chaiken. Raman spectroscopy is a spectroscopic technique used in condensed matter physics and chemistry to examine vibrational, rotational and other low-frequency modes in a system. It is named for Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, who won the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering “feeble fluorescence,” later known as the Raman effect, in 1928.

For his achievement, Chaiken has been named the winner of the 2005 Frank Annunzio Award in the field of science/technology by the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation.