
Turn your iPhone into a high-power digital microscope for around $10 - shard
http://www.tuaw.com/2013/10/25/turn-your-iphone-into-a-high-power-digital-microscope-for-around/
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lhl
That's a fantastic hack, definitely want to build one. Here's the actual
Instructables link: [http://www.instructables.com/id/10-Smartphone-to-digital-
mic...](http://www.instructables.com/id/10-Smartphone-to-digital-microscope-
conversion/)

There was a recent Kickstarter selling a 15X lens recently:
[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/968523355/micro-phone-
le...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/968523355/micro-phone-lens-cell-
phone-based-microscope) but this is closer to the work Dr. Aydogan Ozcan has
been doing at UCLA. They started 3D printing custom backs for dumbphones years
ago. An article from 2009:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/business/08novel.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/business/08novel.html)

It looks like they've moved to smartphones now:
[http://dailybruin.com/2013/09/27/ucla-team-invents-
microscop...](http://dailybruin.com/2013/09/27/ucla-team-invents-microscope-
attachment-for-cell-phones/) and they can now resolve "a single virus" and
nanoparticles down to 90-100nm: [http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/ucla-
researchers-smartp...](http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/ucla-researchers-
smartphone-microscope-248254.aspx)

~~~
niels_olson
As a pathology resident, this is the kind of thing that makes me wonder if I
should be looking for a new job. But everything radiology does is digital, and
they haven't run out of radiology jobs, so maybe the future's not so bad...

~~~
lhl
Wells, it seems like drastically lowering costs for tools would if anything,
increase demand for pathology expertise. Also, Ozcan's work has mostly been
focused on developing countries - opening up new markets if you want to look
at it that way.

Medical equipment manufacturers might have more to worry about, but I'd guess
the amount of regulation involved will probably buffer them long enough to
adapt to any changes.

What's most fascinating to me about Ozcan's work is the amount of
computational photography involved for getting usable images. A few years back
it was mostly MATLAB but I imagine now you could write shaders that run right
in the phone GPUs...

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niels_olson
Pathology resident here. I really like this hack, but a fair amount of my work
is at higher magnification, and requires much better correction. However, I
have been very impressed with the magnifi by arcturus labs. If you already
have a scope and just want to take pictures, I highly recommend it. I can take
better pictures with my iphone 5 and my magnifi than some folks seem to be
able to take with their far more expensive dedicated cameras.
[http://arcturuslabs.com/](http://arcturuslabs.com/)

Not a shill, just a very satisfied customer.

Also, check out [http://reddit.com/r/pathology](http://reddit.com/r/pathology)
for lots of what-is-that? pics!

~~~
apaprocki
> I can take better pictures with my iphone 5 and my magnifi than some folks
> seem to be able to take with their far more expensive dedicated cameras.

Similarly, I have a friend who just bought a high-power field scope
(land->land viewing instead of land->sky) and also found an adapter for the
iPhone camera. Same thing happened there. The quality of his pictures is great
for what it is and it's a tiny fraction of the cost of a SLR attachment or
other type of digital camera.

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guelo
While this is a nice hack, for $64 you can get a really nice and functional
kid's microscope that goes up to 400x.
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NOU54O](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NOU54O)

~~~
shocks
That's six times more expensive, not digital, and not a fun hack.

I fail to understand your point.

~~~
memracom
Do you not understand what "digital" means? The kids microscope is the lens,
not the image recorder. If you set up an attachment to hold your smartphone in
front of the viewpiece, then anything that your eye can see can be digitized.

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lignuist
After reading this, I just glued (removable) a 90 degree led lens to my phone.
Nice results so far.

Edit: Link to such a lens: [http://www.alibaba.com/product-
gs/611389199/Led_Light_Lens_9...](http://www.alibaba.com/product-
gs/611389199/Led_Light_Lens_90_Degree_for.html)

I am happy that I turned my phone into a macro camera for a few cents. :)

Edit2: sorry, I used a 60 degree lens, not a 90 degree one.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Alibaba link has a minimum order of 5000 FWIW (but I expect it was post simply
to show the type).

~~~
lignuist
Exactly. I ordered mine in a pack of ten at ebay.

[http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?Led+lens+60+degree&_nkw=Led+l...](http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?Led+lens+60+degree&_nkw=Led+lens+60+degree&_sacat=0&_from=R40)

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c23gooey
I've done something similar but used the lens out of an old CD drive

~~~
lignuist
That should be a laser lens as well.

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raldi
If you make one, please post your results to
[http://extremecloseups.reddit.com](http://extremecloseups.reddit.com) !

------
Link-
"CELLSTAGRAM" \- Instagram for cellular structures? j/k. This is an amazing
hack, I remember when we were in school, we barely had access to a microscope.
It was fascinating seeing the world from that perspective and always wished we
could experiment with it further. This is a great hack, especially for under-
privileged schools and kids in our region of the world (Lebanon, Middle East).

------
malbs
This is definitely going to be the next weekend project with my kids. They are
so scared of spiders (daddy long legs in particular, our house has thousands
of them).

Time to show the girls what they look like at 175x magnification!

~~~
Sukotto
Maybe start with something that they want to see close up. For example, have
each one pick something rough, something smooth, something that grows, a small
toy, etc.

If your kids are anything like mine, starting by forcing them to confront a
fear will just make them hate the technology and they'll be less willing to
participate the next time you want to do a cool project with them.

~~~
malbs
Good idea, ease into it, show them some leaves, stem cross sections, then "hey
I wonder what a sugar ant looks like..." lead into the spider gently

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Aardwolf
Would this also work for non-Apple phones? The article seems to be very
specific about only mentioning iThings. Is there something about them the
others don't have that is required for this?

~~~
keithpeter
It should work with any phone.

The iThing specificness probably comes from the dimensions of the stand you
need to make to hold the phone.

Just tried holding the 15mm _eyepiece_ off my old school microscope (optical)
in front of the lens on my blackberry. The Thinkpad trackpoint fills the
circular image field nicely (and it shows all the crud down there, so I'm
cleaning it out with a brush now). Very sensitive to having the axes
coincident.

Anyone any idea about the focal length of the LED pointer lens?

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morpher
Very nice. I wonder if a similar lens could be purchased individually so a
bunch of laser pointers don't have to be sacrificed.

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rfatnabayeff
When they zoom in using the touchscreen - isn't that the digital zoom, not
optical? If so, the last x10 seems not legit.

~~~
LionRoar
Indeed! I was going to remark the same. Also a side effect of digital zoom is
that it is not perfectly sharp. You see this already in the example pictures.
After all, digital zoom is more of an effect then real zooming. For this
reason I never use digital zoom on a digital camera. On my PC I have software
that does a better job :)

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sp332
Do you have to worry about the focal length of the lens when doing the build,
or will the phone autofocus reasonably well?

~~~
wmeredith
The viewing platform height is adjustable.

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mathgladiator
seriously cool hack; love it. This would be great for my niece.

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paulrosenzweig
I'm guessing this is fake. A laser pointer lens would let your iPhone see
cells?

~~~
DanBC
[http://hackaday.com/2011/10/19/cellphone-microscope-for-
abou...](http://hackaday.com/2011/10/19/cellphone-microscope-for-about-20/)

[http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-
micr...](http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope)

> Using tape, rubber and a tiny glass ball, researchers transformed an iPhone
> into a cheap, yet powerful microscope able to image tiny blood cells.
> They’ve also added a clinical-grade cellphone spectroscope that might be
> able to measure some vital signs.

> And with a few dollars and some patience, you can do the same to your own
> phone. (See instructions below.)

> “It still amazes me how you can build near-research-grade instruments with
> cheap consumer electronics,” said physicist Sebastian Wachsmann-Hogiu of the
> University of California at Davis, leader of a study March 2 in PLoS ONE.
> “And with cellphones, you can record and transmit data anywhere. In rural or
> remote areas, you could get a diagnosis from a professional pathologist
> halfway around the world.”

