It costs less than a dollar and can provide up to increases 1000; adds to the line of inexpensive accessories that seek to create inexpensive laboratory tools and easy to use for developing countries.
With multiple features, smartphones have become the new knife of the digital age. These are no longer only mobile phones to become small handheld computers with various functions, by applications or additional accessories.
That’s how researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (USA) managed to transform a smartphone into a powerful and economical portable microscope thanks to an accessory created with a 3D printer. Of course, the intention is not to replace the optical quality of a conventional microscope, but to provide a simple, inexpensive and portable alternative for use in situations where we do not have access to a laboratory.
As if it were a part of a case, this accessory costs less than a dollar next to a small sphere of glass combined with the phone’s camera lens that functions as zoom to analyze. In this way, they managed to create various models 100, 350 and up to 1000, able to show small spores of anthrax.
Its creators aim to promote technology in education and in the development of health facilities in developing countries, still lack the ability to access the highest quality equipment, but more expensive.
The molds are available free at the site of the Pacific Northwest University for multiple smartphone models.