[APP] [FREE] TickScanner - find ticks in your dog's fur with an inverted camera + AI
Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2026 10:54 am
With tick season in full swing, a tip that helped me a lot with my own dog.
Ticks are tiny and hide deep in the coat, and on dark fur they are nearly invisible. One thing that works surprisingly well: color inversion. If you invert the camera image, dark fur turns bright and a tick stands out as a clear spot. Phone accessibility settings can do this, but it is clumsy to use.
I ended up building a free app around the idea: TickScanner. It shows a live color-inverted camera view, and an AI model marks suspicious spots in real time. Flash and up to 8x zoom help with thick coats, and you can save photos with notes to show your vet, or to re-check after removing a tick.
Price: free (ad-supported). No in-app purchases. No root required.
play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eltacrew.tickscanner
Two cautions, as always: never pull a tick off with bare fingers, and the app is a checking aid, not a diagnosis. When in doubt, see your vet.
(Disclosure: I am the developer. Free app.)
Ticks are tiny and hide deep in the coat, and on dark fur they are nearly invisible. One thing that works surprisingly well: color inversion. If you invert the camera image, dark fur turns bright and a tick stands out as a clear spot. Phone accessibility settings can do this, but it is clumsy to use.
I ended up building a free app around the idea: TickScanner. It shows a live color-inverted camera view, and an AI model marks suspicious spots in real time. Flash and up to 8x zoom help with thick coats, and you can save photos with notes to show your vet, or to re-check after removing a tick.
Price: free (ad-supported). No in-app purchases. No root required.
play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eltacrew.tickscanner
Two cautions, as always: never pull a tick off with bare fingers, and the app is a checking aid, not a diagnosis. When in doubt, see your vet.
(Disclosure: I am the developer. Free app.)