A real-time digital cytometer on a chip system utilizing a custom near field CMOS active pixel intelligent sensor that is flip-chip attached to a fluidic microchannel etched in a thin glass substrate. The CMOS active pixel sensor, fabricated using a 0.18 micron process, is a mixed signal chip comprising a sixteen pixel linear adaptive spatial filter coupled to a digital serial interface. This near field hybrid digital sensor topology obviates the need for both high resolution analog to digital conversion as well as conventional microscopy for the realization of real time optical cytometry. The custom sensor based design approach affords efficient scaling into a tiled multi-channel sensing configuration. The complete system, supported by a handheld graphical user interface and control module, demonstrates a viable micro total analysis sub-system for sample preparation and analysis which can support a wide range of applications ranging from cytometry to cell growth kinetics and analysis and various forms of fluid and droplet metering on an integrated and compact microfluidic platform.