Medical-grade microscope photography for $20 might be a game
changer in areas where medical services are unavailable. This
particular hack uses an iPhone’s 2 megapixel camera, as well as
a tiny glass marble, to magnify a sample to about 350 times its
actual size. The two images seen on the left are red blood cells
photographed with the improvised microscope. The main issue with
this magnification method is a very thin plane of focus that is
overcome with processing in software. This makes us think of the
microscope hack that shined a laser through a droplet of water,
to project the image on a wall. The concept was later refined to
work with samples on glass slides. There are a couple of
distinct advantages to using this cellphone-based method. First,
the sample can be seen with its true colors. Second, you not
only magnify the sample, but you have a digitized image already
on a device that connects to the Internet. If you’re trying to
make a medical diagnosis this can easily be sent to a qualified
professiona