Patrick Galliker, Martin Schmid and Julian Schneider were working to create new 3D inkjet printing technology on a nano scale to incorporate the technology into flexible electronics and wearables. They were frustrated with the lack of portable, powerful and low cost microscopes so they created their own solution. μpeek, their microscope, began to pull in more and more interest so they decided instead to concentrate on developing their vision tools.
The team operates under the name Scrona and is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to fund μpeek, the professional microscope that fits in your wallet. μpeek works with the user's smart phone to perform microscope functions and extreme close up photography.
μpeek is around the size of a credit card at 57 by 92 millimeters and 5 millimeters thick. It weighs 55 grams and its USB chargeable battery can run up to four hours. Resolution for the motorized focus four element lens is up to 1.4 micrometers and magnification can be between 35-350x depending on the smart phone's camera.
The case for μpeek is waterproof and uses Gorilla glass to cover the lens. The unit adheres to a smart phone through a sticky pad on the back of the casing. The slide holder accepts standard microscope slides and white light, brightfield, darkfield and fluorescence microscopy can all be performed with the unit.
The team hopes that μpeek and devices like it can create more microscope users and enthusiasts and supply educators with high quality, low cost equipment. They hope to start a community for picture sharing, user guides and remote diagnostics.
μpeek looks like an amazing microscope for any level of user and application. It's very interesting to me that several iterations of iPhones, Samsung Galaxy, and Notes are supported by the scope and app - as an iPhone 4 user I know that older phone models are often an afterthought during development. The funding campaign ends on January 9, 2016 and first units will ship in June 2016.