3D-printed 'clip-on' turns phone into fully functional microscope

as mentioned in (Image: Centre for Nanoscale BioPhotonics)Australian investigators from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics (CNBP) have developed a 3D-printable "clip-on" that turns a smartphone into a fully functional microscope. The clip-on features "internal illumination tunnels" that Utilize light from the cam flash to illuminate the sample from behind. "We've designed a easy mobile smartphone microscope that takes advantage of the integrated illumination obtainable with almost all smartphone cameras," Orth said. "Our mobile microscope could be used as a inexpensive and portable tool for all types of onsite or remote-area monitoring." Stanford University investigators have too developed a cheap, foldable paper microscope that costs less than a U.S. dollar to create, aimed for Utilize in emerging countries.

Turn your phone cam into a microscope with this 3D-printed accessory

But you could certainly take this 3D-printed version, designed to clip onto your phone and work with its camera. Requiring no external power or lighting source, the phone microscope is slated to be a handy tool for conducting fieldwork in remote areas, especially the time bringing a larger microscope is impractical or unavailable. "External LEDs and power sources could make these other systems surprisingly complex, bulky and hard to assemble. What's more, the three-dimensional printer files needed to innovate the phone microscope have been launched freely on-line with the researchers. Orth told he and his colleagues have successfully tested the phone microscope on samples such as zooplankton and cattle semen.