Want to talk about soil contamination? Join us on any Tuesday Open Call in February and March. We'll kick-off a research area review on this topic on Feb. 2! Click here for details on how to join!

Public Lab Research note

How to Make a Simple Smartphone Microscope #citizenscience #science #DIY #3dprinting

by zengirl2 | February 28, 2018 04:52 28 Feb 04:52 | #15832 | #15832

A recent post on Digital Trends discussed a 3d printed attachment for a smartphone that allows it to become a microscope. The plastic piece uses a tunnel to channel the light from the camera's flash to the sample plate. The 3D print files and notes are available on Centre for Nanoscale BioPhotonics, Australia and the only other item needed is a phone camera lens module (which is quite inexpensive). Its capability is described as "strong enough to visualize specimens as small as a two-hundredth of a millimeter."

4 Comments

  
Comment Author Profile Picture warren commented almost 3 years ago

This is really cool! I'm hoping this person may also be interested in pitching in on microscope work -- https://publiclab.org/notes/MicroscopesAreCool/12-05-2016/microscope-from-tablet-computer

Thanks Leslie!

Reply to this comment...


@warren should this be added to the mic page? Also, I'm hoping to print one of these before Barnraising NJ. :)

Is this a question? Click here to post it to the Questions page.

Reply to this comment...


  
Comment Author Profile Picture warren commented almost 3 years ago

Sure! And be sure to follow the microscopes tag -- lots going on over at #basic-microscope !!!

Reply to this comment...


  
Ag8n commented almost 3 years ago

This seems similar to some microscopes that use a CD or DVD player lense with a phone camera to act as a microscope. Built a couple with the dvd lenses and found them very hard to use. Hope this 3d printed version is much more vesatile!

Reply to this comment...


Login to comment.

Share

Public Lab is open for anyone and will always be free. By signing up you'll join a diverse group of community researchers and tap into a lot of grassroots expertise.

Sign up