The engineers at QingYing E&T are microscopy enthusiasts dedicated to exploring the world at small scale and developing tools for users at any level of skill, education, or means. QingYing has already developed several tools and applications and is currently running a crowdfunding campaign for their iMicro Fingertip Microscope, a small scale microscope that attaches to the back of a smartphone.
iMicro can reach magnifications up to 800x while keeping a strong 1 micro resolution. The entire unit weighs 1.5 grams with a 26 x 12 x 3.5 millimeter footprint, attaching to the back of a smartphone via suction pad and an available ‘shim’ piece for phones that have a raised camera piece. The case is made of stainless steel. iMicro’s app works with iOS and Android, and the campaign says that it works with phones having a distance in the range of 5 to 16 millimeters distance between flash and camera. An optional micrometer ruler can help to calibrate the scale bar in the app and easily measure size of objects. There are demonstration videos on the campaign page showing a user installing the microscope on the back of a phone, and showing the nano-pad suction connection. Several different pictures pulled from the microscope are also present on the campaign page, along with a demonstration of its resolution based on the USAF 1951 test chart.
It’s inspiring to me to see a company so dedicated to a goal that they’ve focused on little else since 2012, and released several different iterations of their flagship product (their website shows iMicroscope, the R, the RT, the Q, and the iAdapter, along with the i-SEEING and i-SCOPE apps.) As technology gets smaller and smaller it’s good to know that our tools to see the world are improving as well. The campaign is already fully funded and ends on December 17, 2018.