Scientists use iPhone to build high-performance microscope

Scientists in the US have found a way to turn a smartphone into a high-powered microscope for observing red blood cells, for just $10. They have also used everyday household items to make a spectroscope, which measures different frequencies of light.

The first step is to prepare a piece of black material, such as card, and then drill a small hole in it to act as the aperture.

Place the ordered glass ball or hemispherical lens with a diameter of 1 mm into the aperture, making sure it fits as tightly as possible.

After completing all the steps, your phone will look like this.

The spectrometer, made from electrical tape, PVC pipe and a small grill, can split light into different colors.

Researchers say turning a smartphone into a microscope is more than just fun, and patients in remote parts of the world could benefit greatly from the creation. In theory, the simple microscope could be used to take photos of infected areas of the skin, which could be emailed to doctors thousands of miles away to help them make a diagnosis. Laboratory microscopes usually cost thousands of dollars and are difficult to take out of the lab. The smartphone-turned-microscope

is the most compact and cheap microscope yet. The microscope was developed by Sebastian Washman-Hogg, a physicist at the University of California, based on a previous design. The previous design was more fragile and required more parts. Washman-Hogg simplified it by using a rubber band to attach a 1mm diameter glass ball above the iPhone camera. The iPhone version of the magnifier has a magnification of 350x, and because it cannot focus, the photos taken need to be processed with computer software.

The total cost of making the microscope is $20, but researchers say that the cost can be reduced to just $10 if plastic lenses are used instead of glass. They are currently working on ways to improve the quality of the photos and developing software to determine blood oxygen levels and count blood cells.

The prototype of the mobile spectrometer is made of insulating tape, PVC pipe and a small grill to split light into different colors. "I am amazed that we can use low-cost consumer electronics to make a near-research-grade device," Washman-Hogg told Wired magazine. "With a mobile phone, you can record and transmit data anywhere. In rural or remote areas, you can have an occupational pathologist thousands of miles away to help you diagnose your condition." Adogan Ozcan, an electrical

engineer at the University of California, Berkeley, said that compared with the previous use of smartphones, this method is even more incredible and like a dream. "This is an amazing approach that is beyond the imagination of many people in the scientific community," he said. "We need to focus on creative designs like this and continue to test and improve them to save people's lives." Ozcan was not involved in the project. The details of the research were published in the Public Library of Science One.

Specific steps to make a smartphone version of the microscope:

1. Take out your smartphone, preferably one with a touch screen and manual focus.

2. Prepare a piece of black material, such as card, and then drill a small hole in it to act as an aperture.

3. Order a glass ball or hemispherical lens with a diameter of 1 mm, which costs about $10.

4. Put the lens into the aperture and make it fit as tightly as possible.

5. Use black tape to fix them to the phone camera, making sure they are located in the center of the camera. To do this, you need to cut a small hole in the black tape that is larger than the lens but smaller than the aperture.

6. Adjust the position so that it is in the center of the viewfinder.

7. Make sure there is enough light when shooting.