Microscope

Overview - The $1 video microscope

With additional lenses, the XO can be used as a video microscope. A prototype $1 lens exists.

The XO display viewed with an XO microscope.

A printed "e".

A video of Mary Lou's prototype microscope attachment for the XO video camera. She compares the display of an XO and a more typical ThinkPad.

The microscope, which is said to have ~ 100× magnification, could be useful to analyzing water quality, among other things.

Details

From the youtube video, it looks like the field of view is about 9.5 pixels, so 1.2 mm (because the screen is 200 ppi). Pixels are about 130 um diagonally. Some pixels are visibly rectangular, suggesting perhaps ~1/3 pixel resolution, or about 50 um. A 50 um resolution would mean you could see amoebas (about the size of a pixel), and large plant cells, but most animal cells would be fuzzy dots (about 1/10 of a pixel). A human hair is slightly narrower than a pixel.

Techniques

Magnification is often only the first step in being able to see details.

Aside from staining, a variety of techniques might be adapted to the XO. QX3 techniques suggests some possibilities.

Dark field microscopy

Also known as "darkfield microscopy".

In direct sunlight, with a small square of black construction paper, it might be possible to do a form of dark field microscopy. As here.

Other microscopes

The XO has also been used with the now-discontinued $100 Intel Play QX3 USB Microscope.[1]