Australian Researchers Develop Lens to Transform Smartphones into Microscopes with Enough Resolution to Diagnose Skin Cancers; Goal is to Improve Access to Microscopy in Developing Countries
Pathologists will soon have multiple low-cost devices that allow their smartphones and notebook computers to function as microscopes
Microscopy is going mobile and becoming accessible to people beyond pathologists. Researchers and entrepreneurs have invented lenses to transform smartphones and tablets into flat microscopes.
Researchers at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, (ANU) have developed an optical lens that can be combined with a smartphone camera to create a microscope for diagnosing skin cancer, reported Physics World in a story published this spring.
Other mobile microscope products have gone to market over the past year. They vary in purpose, magnification strength, and cost. But they have one thing in common: they all fit in a pocket or a flat case and are relatively inexpensive. (more…)
